Chow Chow
by liliwick the WORD
Summary: AU. Funny how a sweet little romance could blossom from quite an unexpected place. For Sora, he never expected it to bloom in an incident involving a karaoke booth … Cloud/Sora. ON HIATUS.
1. Chorus 1: repeat

**Warnings: Shonen****-ai – **a nasty and addicting phenomenon that I have embraced ever since I entered into the domain that is Fanfiction.

**Pairing: **Purely Cloud x Sora – although there is a hint of a Cloud x Aerith

Although I am a full supporter of the Sora x Riku pairing, I cannot deny the fact that CloudSora is becoming one of my favourite pairings. Why is that? Is it because I just like to pair up the prettiness of Cloud with the adorable-ness of Sora? Is it the matching hairstyles or eye colours? Is it because of my determination to defeat Sephiroth in the game so I could finish Cloud's story and get him to finally accept Sora (unfortunately, even after several attempts of confronting the guy, I keep dying because Sephiroth is like, IMPOSSIBLE, to beat because he moves **so fast** and he has like a **gazillion** lives).

Anyway, I must humbly thank my brilliant partner-in-crime, **suika's wind of the celestial** (anyone who's into YGO and a Prideshipper i.e. SetoYami, go check out her stories – they are **good**), for giving me an idea on how to initiate this story. In addition, the title of this story is based on the song 'Chow Chow' by the Korean band, DeliSpice. Again, credits to **suika** for giving me this break.

**Disclaimer: **_"Kingdom … Hearts …" Xemnas breathed as he stared lovingly at the monstrous pink-amber heart shaped object floating lazily in the dark sky, "belongs … to me…"_

You heard the man. NoriKo-chan does not own Kingdom Hearts. And despite what Xemnas had said, he doesn't own it either. Disney and Square Enix hold all the ropes. The lucky, lucky people.

**

* * *

**

Chow Chow

* * *

_**(Chorus 1- repeat)**_

The booth was much more clearly described as a large rectangular box standing stiffly against a section of wall located next to the dance machines. In the permanently crowded arcade, there were only around five karaoke booths that could function properly compared to the extra two ones that were placed aside, a notice paper on their doors blaring out the words 'OUT OF SERVICE'.

At the same time, two booths became vacated as their occupants bustled out of its domains, flushed in the face from bawling out this week's most popular tunes, their eyes shining brightly with excitement. It was a signal for the queue to move of course and as expected, the line shifted as the customers in the front made their way into the cubicles. Sora caught hold of the door handle of a particular booth at the end of the row painted in orange and white colours and decorated with cute little animated characters dancing alongside colourful music notes. A liquorice stick was held between his lips as he stood aside to let a glum-looking Tidus abandon the waiting queue of karaoke-interested arcade-goers and join him inside.

As he chewed on the end of the stick, he noticed the expression on his companion's face before he slapped Tidus heartily on the back, "Hey, stop looking so glum! Have a bit of my liquorice!"

The half-eaten liquorice stick was pulled out of his mouth and humbly offered to the other boy. Tidus took one look at the candy, his mind acknowledging the fact that the end of that stick was coated in Sora's saliva, before shaking his head hastily in an effort to hint at his companion on what he was exactly offering.

Unfortunately Sora didn't get the message and instead, placed the stick back between his lips, "Cheer up, will ya! Go and sing something – you'll feel much better extinguishing that grief of yours with a feel-good song!" The brunet turned to meet the plasma screen of the booth where the words, 'Insert 2 Tokens for 3 Songs' flashed across the silver surface.

Tidus merely sighed and ran his fingers through his sun-kissed blonde hair. "I dunno, Sora–"

"Come on, Tidus! I'll even let you pick out the songs," he chirped, tilting his head playfully to let his brown bangs fall across his eyes. Extracting two red tokens from his pocket, he slipped them into the machine's slot, hearing a muffled '_thunk_' sound emitting from within the contraption. As the flashing words on the screen disappeared to be replaced by a song track selection, the machine's opening music filled the hollow silence of the booth with a dance-like number.

Facing the screen were three small stools. Sora sat down on the stool at the end and motioned for the other to join him. As a disgruntled Tidus plopped down next to him, Sora reached out to curiously touch the screen and select a song.

Tidus' eyes widened when he realised exactly what song had been picked.

"NO!" he snapped, pulling Sora's fingers away from the screen and leaning over himself to cancel out the chosen track. The screen returned back to displaying the song track selection. Tidus glared at a wide-eyed Sora, who was shrugging his shoulders as if he hadn't made a mistake in his life.

"What do you think you're doing?" demanded the older of the pair as he continued to glare at the other. "I don't _like _that song."

Sora's eyes stared up at his own, the sky blue irises sparkling with mischievous glee. "It's 'Jump!' by Girls Aloud," he promptly stated in a matter-of-factly tone. "It's a happy song that will surely flip over those nasty downturn smiles. Plus, **I **wanna sing it as well!"

"The only thing that will be flipping over is my **head** when that song starts playing," groaned Tidus as he cast his gaze back onto the screen to scan the selection. "Oh, why did I let you talk me into this?"

Of course, it was genuine fact that Sora was perhaps Tidus' cheeriest of friends. At university, no one could turn down the smiles delivered by the brunet or return a casual wave of greeting. Seeing Sora was almost like seeing the speck of sunshine on a colourless winter's day. The sight of cinnamon-coloured spiky brown hair, a pair of bright sky toned eyes and an exultant smile was ninety percent guaranteed to bring just a slit of happiness into your form.

And as for Tidus, that statement proved true when Sora's lips curled into a smile, making him release a sigh of submission. He shouldn't act so harshly towards the brunet. After all, it was Sora's idea for attempting to cheer him up from his disastrous break-up with Selphie which had ended not a few hours ago.

"Okay, okay," he surrendered and resumed scanning the selection tracks for three probable songs to waste the two tokens on.

Once three choices were made, the song track selection dissolved into the landscape of a park where a line of ducks swam across the surface of a pond. The song began in a slow steady curve of guitars and Sora, instead of picking up his own microphone to join in the singing, plucked the liquorice stick from his mouth and leaned over to Tidus' microphone to sing alongside him. Tidus merely rolled his eyes, knowing for a fact that Sora always helped himself to things without acquiring consent. It was in his nature after all.

On signal, the opening vocals of the song commenced and as Tidus grumbled into the tune, Sora gaped in surprise at the screen, realising that the song exceeded a mood that was just far from happy. And as the chorus came on, he almost cringed at the painful whining in Tidus' voice and chose this moment to interrogate. He spoke into Tidus' mike, drowning out the other's voice.

"Tidus? What exactly is this?"

Tidus jerked the mike well away from Sora's mouth to frown upon the boy's verbal intrusion, "It's 'Everybody Hurts' by R.E.M. Unless you want to sing along, please don't disturb me."

'_Everybody Hurts'? _thought Sora with a small uneasy look flickering across his features. _But that song will just sadden you even further! _

Truth be told, Sora did not particularly favour anything that was sad, much less miserable. With a small pout, he quietened in his stool, putting the liquorice stick back into his mouth and watched Tidus belt out his sorrows in long crooning tunes while on the screen, the ducks began scattering all over the lake as if the tune playing was upsetting their peaceful swimming.

Did he mention that Tidus sang **terribly **at this song? Poor Sora.

* * *

"That's a bit of a hassle, don't you think?" huffed a slightly annoyed Aerith to a slightly frowning Cloud as they moved away from the Token Exchange counter of the arcade where a long queue of potential arcade-goers lined impatiently to collect their red tokens.

Cloud chose not to answer to her comment, reaching up instead to tuck a blonde strand of hair behind his ear while absent-mindedly counting the number of red tokens rested on his palm. Ten coins of Munny in exchange for just seven red tokens – how outrageous was that? Other arcades would probably have cheaper prices than this one … not that Cloud had ever tested out this hypothesis before anyway. He rarely ever ventured into the land of arcade games, not with work and everything.

But tonight, Aerith had just happened to insist it and Cloud, being the nice guy he was, granted her request to accompany her in attempting to achieve a high score in some of the games.

The arcade was as crowded as ever with rowdy teenagers, screaming ten-year-olds and the occasional romantic couple or two. Cloud realised that he should have spent those delayed two minutes at the house waiting for Aerith to change into something more appropriate to wear. While everyone else decked out in fashionable trendy outfits in a variety of colours, Cloud stood out like a sore thumb - being dressed in his formal blue shirt, tie, black pants and shiny shoes. He looked like a distressed father in this sea of youngsters despite not showing any signs of distress in his façade. No, the majority of the time his expressions were generally blank and absent with emotion regardless of the situation.

A delighted Aerith pulled him towards one of the Whack The Mole machines situated at one end of the arcade and she swiftly took one token from Cloud's hand to insert it into the slot.

At once, the machine started flashing red and yellow lights and a set of numbers shone out of a black strip, showing the machine's highest score. Music filtered out of the speakers of the contraption followed by an electronic voice whose tone was filled with overwhelming enthusiasm:

"_WHACK THE **MOLE**_!!"

There were two mallets hooked against the side of the machine and Aerith took both of them, handing one out to an astonished Cloud, who would rather not join her in these games. But this was Aerith, of course, and Cloud had to once again succumb to her wishes and perform the inevitable. After all, he was the one treating her.

A plastic mole popped out of one of the many circular holes embedded on the surface. It looked horrendous – a sausage-shaped, caramel coloured rodent with large black eyes, a button nose and a pink bow circling its neck. One of the small ears was dented in as a result of the many blows of the mallet delivered by previous players.

Just one glance of the creature disgusted Cloud. Before he had the chance to move, Aerith had already slammed her mallet onto the mole, the force inflicted probably denting the ear, if not the entire _head_, even further.

Soon, Cloud found himself motionless over the contraption, staring at the many moles popping in and out of holes faster than he could blink. The mallet lay poised in his hand, ready to strike at the precise moment – well, technically speaking, he wasn't cut out to things like this. The only thing that floated into Cloud's mind at the moment was how ugly those moles (would they even be called moles?) looked as they flashed in sight and disappeared, their tiny faces gleaming hideously in the dim lights above them.

Aerith called out to him, her voice unsteady from her concentration on the moles, "Cloud, come on and hit something!"

Her voice managed to convince himself that he must remain composed for Cloud did not like to show fazed expressions on his façade. Tightly gripping the mallet in his hand, he braced himself for the appearance of a nearby mole that would happen to pop out of its hole to intimidate him with its appearance.

When that finally happened, he reached over to whack the creature – only to find a solid object pummel hard onto the back of his hand. The sudden sting made him drop the mallet and Aerith jumped back when she realised the damage she had done.

"Oops," she said as a red welt appeared on the ivory skin of Cloud's hand. Cloud cast his stare onto the cringing Aerith who was able to accurately speculate his inward feelings despite the blank exterior. Everyone knew the well-known fact that Cloud hated it when people attempted to guess what he was thinking so he cunningly disguised it through stoic expressions. Because of this, people have misjudged him as cold and aloof – a fact that was severely mistaken to those who didn't know him so well.

"Aerith …" came Cloud's response, calm and controlled as it was. Aerith merely smiled apologetically and reached out to tenderly rub the swollen hand.

"Sorry about that. How about we go and shoot some basketball hoops?"

Cloud fought off the thought that involved the possibility of basketballs being hurled unintentionally at his being, knowing the amount of energy Aerith put into when participating in any ball games. After all, if one little accident could happen at one place, what were the possible chances of _two?_

Oh how he didn't know.

* * *

Sora winced when he found that the next song track that Tidus sang along to was a tear-jerking duet that was even more depressing than the last.

He was even more horrified at the video clip that came along with the track. Tearing off the wrapper of a new liquorice stick, he stared at the plasma screen where a long-haired woman with outrageously thick make-up posed vigilantly among a garden of flower blooms with heavy lidded eyes that made her look as if she was about to fall asleep any moment. With one twist of her body, she stilled in her latest stance and rested her chin onto her knuckles, at the same time flaunting a not-so-very classy wristwatch in such a way that one would wonder whether the woman knew if she was either modelling for a photograph picture or being filmed for a karaoke video clip. If it was for the latter, she was doing her job quite unprofessionally if it was to capture such a tearful mood for the clip did **not **go well with the song. At all.

Just looking at the screen was enough to make his heart ache from the unattractiveness.

* * *

The maniacal, unsteady throbbing of a music beat could be felt from underneath his feet. The stage he was standing motionless on shook slightly from the fierce vibration waves that exceeded from the stamps coming from the platform next to his. He didn't need to glance to his side to see who was causing such a disturbance. Aerith was much too distracted at the screen to bother and receive any remarks about the force she was inflicting onto the directional buttons on her stage.

"Wow, look at her go!"

Behind them, a small crowd had gathered to watch their performance. It was yet another reason why Cloud regretted forever succumbing to Aerith's wishes. He knew he should have put up more of a fight, even if it was in the form of a stubborn tug away from her grip or the acute shooting of a small glare. _Anything_ to stop him from ending up with this fate.

"Aw, he's letting his girlfriend win! Kinda cute!"

He continued staring blankly at his own monitor screen where a set of arrows rolled upwards like the ending credits of a film. As they reached a stationary row of the similar pointers at the top of the screen, the word 'BOO!' flashed repeatedly as a comment to his progress.

The machine even vocally expressed its concerns for his apathy: _"Don't be careless now!"_

He could have at least frowned or even sulked on the spot, just to express how much he was not enjoying this. Perhaps he should have attempted in doing a couple of steps just to score some points. And why was the machine saying that he was careless? He hadn't even moved an inch from his place since the song started.

"_Oh no, you're in **danger**!"_

To be blunt, Cloud simply **refused **to dance on the dancing stage. Instead, he stood completely still on the spot, his stare fixed solely on the number of 'BOO!'s that kept popping up on the screen.

"_Did you eat breakfast today?_"

He almost scoffed. What kind of a comment was _that_? Firstly, it was well into the early evening for any meal to be called breakfast. His cereal bar and orange juice had long ago been digested into his system. And what was up with the remark itself? Had the company that designed this game run out of snazzy commentary to add into the machine?

He wondered how the people in the crowd reacted as they witnessed this unusual performance. They'd be watching a brunette girl who practically stomped all over the stage with enough force to possibly break the machine and a blonde guy who simply **stood still** on the other stage without moving a muscle, ignoring the blush that stained the paleness of his cheeks. Oh, and don't forget the 'BOO!'s that kept flashing across his screen for his 'effort'.

It was quite a fascinating sight really.

* * *

Sora watched a man and a woman stroll hand-in-hand across the plasma screen of the karaoke booth. Foreign characters of an unknown language ran across the base of the screen, occasionally lighting up to signal Tidus to sing along the last song of their selection playing. As Sora gathered, the tune was a strange continuous melody that ran on electric guitars. The vocals itself were incredibly droning, its tone flat and monotonous, the chorus repeating over again and again.

It was a perfect song for a grieving Tidus.

Chewing on the end of his liquorice stick, Sora sighed to himself. Usually Tidus was a contented character, always ready for a challenge and a bit of a teaser. As one of Sora's close friends, they hung out quite a lot together since the beginning of university. Then Tidus began dating Selphie Tilmett, the university paper's columnist, and they became quite inseparable by then.

He still remembered how the two lovebirds found each other. It was quite an incident really. Being a member of the university newspaper, Selphie went around the college exploiting the latest news ranging from small rumours to big-time events. And it was one day when she witnessed the university's blitzball team losing that she decided to write a criticizing column in the paper about how badly the players had played. Tidus, being a member of said team who was outraged by the criticism, decided to confront the matter face-to-face. The result was a bizarre outburst of flying insults and snide remarks continually exchanged between the two. Whenever one of them appeared in the other's sight, there was always the search for an uncanny reason to start off another fiery argument. And it went on for weeks on end – until one day, the news of Tidus going out with Selphie bloomed forth – and the rest followed afterwards.

Although Sora wasn't one to wander upon such grounds, he did accept the idea of how precise Tidus' and Selphie's initial meeting took place. Who could have expected that one criticizing column on the paper could blossom a relationship between two people?

The scene on the screen changed. The man and the woman were now gazing into each other's eyes, smiling wondrously as they leaned over to kiss. They moved ever so slowly that it took almost ten seconds for their lips to finally touch.

Sora mused upon the situation at hand. What had convinced Selphie to demand a break-up? The brunet raked his brains for an answer, remembering something that Tidus had told him. Something about the couple's 'thing' not working out.

The brunet shook his head slightly. _With such a vague reason like that, it's no wonder that Tidus is feeling as low as he is. Plus, what on earth is a 'thing' anyway? _

Alas, for it could not be denied that when it came to subjects like these, Sora was a little oblivious on the matter. Especially with things that spoke from beneath the surface.

As Tidus' voice dissipated into the closing guitar riffs and the welcome screen reappeared back, the blonde placed his mike back onto its handle. Their turn in the karaoke booth was over.

"Oh Tidus," Sora said sadly, placing a gentle hand onto Tidus' drooping shoulder. "I told you that you should've picked happier songs instead. I know for a fact that songs can vary people's moods, see. I guess that when you become sadder, I'll be sad as well. I'm so sorry."

Tidus suddenly sprang up from his stool, stretching his arms over his head as if he had just woken up from a peaceful doze.

"Wow, that felt **good**!" A large grin formed on his face as he cracked his knuckles one by one, the sound echoing throughout the hollow silence. Sora was startled in seeing the bright expression on his companion's face. Wait a second! Shouldn't the blonde continue being sad after singing such miserable songs like those?!

"Tidus," he managed to blurt out after partly recovering from his initial shock. "Are you alright–"

_Come on. You just broke up with your girlfriend. And sang sad songs. Now you've become so energetic? Did I **miss** something here?_

"Never felt better," Tidus cut in, folding his arms behind his head – one of Sora's moves he liked to imitate once in a while – "Thanks to you, I guess. How about I treat you to a smoothie, eh? How's that sound?"

Sora blinked, "Okay, I guess."

"Meet you outside then!" Tidus flashed a toothy grin before disappearing behind the booth door, leaving Sora still sitting there, dazed.

* * *

The queue was moving as groups of people got out of the different karaoke booths only to be freshly replaced with those waiting in line. Cloud and Aerith shuffled to the front of the line as a group of five teenagers squeezed their way into one of the vacated cubicles regardless of the obvious rule that the maximum number of persons allowed inside was only three.

Aerith flicked up her wrist to gingerly peek at her silver watch. "It's been three minutes," she commented, casting her eyes over the karaoke booths filled with teenagers before landing back onto her companion. "Cloud," she began. "Wait here for a while? I'm just going to go to the Ladies', okay?"

A definite shrug was enough to deliver the message. But before she moved away, the door of the orange and white booth located at the end of the row opened to let a blonde teenager emerge with a toothy grin on his face as he made his away past the queue to a smoothie stall situated outside the arcade in the Food Court.

"Bother," came Aerith's utterance when she realised their turn to occupy a booth had come. She looked up at Cloud again, "Wait for me in there then? I'll **just **be a second."

"Okay," this time Cloud managed a verbal reply as he watched Aerith's form submerge into the sea of arcade-goers. He turned back to the recently vacated booth and reached for the doorknob.

* * *

After Tidus' departure a second earlier, Sora kept staring at the plasma screen where the words 'Insert 2 Tokens for 3 Songs' flashed across the surface. Unfortunately for our poor naïve Sora, he hadn't fully grasped what had just happened. One moment Tidus was sulking in the corner and then the next, he was grinning like a maniac. Was it the magic of the karaoke machine that had altered the youth's mood regardless of the vibe of the tune?

It was only just a few seconds later that the brunet decided that he should just accept the situation. There was no need to further perplex his thoughts. He had already achieved what he needed to do. After all, the fact that Tidus was successfully enlivened by Sora's brilliant solutions was enough to satisfy the brunet for a while.

Holding the liquorice stick in place between his teeth, he got up from his stool and involuntarily brushed off the imaginary dust off his pants. He cast a final look onto the screen, feeling slightly sad that he hadn't had a turn on the microphone and experience the magic that had been cast upon Tidus. Perhaps he'd be luckier some other time.

But first – to the smoothie!

Even thinking about the soft fluffy substance in a cup made him skip in his steps as he bounded towards the door. Oh how he loved smoothies! What a brilliant invention it was to concoct a drink that could tickle your taste buds senseless with its taste and pleasure your tongue with its remarkable smooth texture!

Oh god! Did Tidus pause to enquire to him on what flavour he would like? Sora felt his heart gave a little jump when he realised that the blonde youth hadn't. Whatever happened, he must warn Tidus **not** to get him the chocolate flavoured one! He had tried it once before and resented the foul taste. It seemed that somebody must have put something unpleasant in that recipe to ruin such a favourable taste…

With his mind distracted on the images of rainbow coloured smoothies and the liquorice still held between his lips, Sora's energetic form burst out of the booth where he sensed the door collide into something solid.

* * *

Just as Cloud's fingers touched the surface of the doorknob belonging to the karaoke booth, the door suddenly swung open and crashed into his form. The solid plane of the door slammed into his face with such tremendous force that he was thrown off his feet. The next thing he knew, he could see stars and cartoon animated characters dancing across his vision.

* * *

Sora was faced with a queue of startled and shocked people when he emerged from the booth. He was aware that the girl in the front of the queue had her manicured fingers placed on her lips and her companion, a guy with a mop of thick hair, had both eyebrows raised so high that they disappeared into the mass of locks. Behind them were similar expressions of shock plastered over different faces. Passing arcade-goers paused to see what the commotion was about.

Sora blinked in confusion when he realised that the so-called 'commotion' seemed to involve him. Several pairs of eyes had cast accusingly onto his form and others strayed onto the area behind the open door. Finally, a hushed voice from the queue emerged from the crowd, their tone laced with blame, "So careless! How could he not see where he's going?"

_Where I'm going? _Sora echoed it in his mind, trying to see the meaning behind those words. Or rather, he decided to peek behind the open booth door to see exactly what the queue of people were staring at.

He didn't expect to see someone behind that door, lying eagle-spread on the floor. Startled at the sight, he felt his mouth drop open, letting the liquorice stick fall onto the floor.

Behind that door, there was a naturally pale face with high-defined cheekbones, a long slender nose, pliant lips and deep blue eyes. There followed the blue shirt, tie, the sleek black pants and shoes forming an individual highly out of place in an arcade like this. Wild, spiky blonde hair adorned his head, complimenting his rather subtle features.

Forgetting everything around him, Sora crept even closer, suddenly becoming aware that the area around the man's left temple had turned a flamboyant pink colour which, in a few seconds, faded into a rosy red shade. His eyebrow twitched upwards in bewilderment as his mind tried to accept to the actual fact that yes, indeed, the man's temple was **changing colour** and he was definitely _not _seeing things.

The vivid red tinge began to darken in tone and Sora could've sworn he saw the skin begin to move – or rather, as he inched even closer – it was actually swelling in size. Wait a second –! Swelling?!

He whipped his head back to stare at the door that he had just swung open, vaguely remembering the feeling of the door banging into something solid. He froze when he was struck with realisation.

He had slammed the door right into the man's head.

Sora collapsed breathlessly beside the still body where he leaned his face over the other's in order to examine the outcome of the damage. Dazed, out of focus blue eyes stared straight back at him. Appearing in vision, those eyes started to blink sporadically in an effort to ward away the numb shock that had taken over his entire form.

Sora waved his fingers rather agitatedly over the man's eyes to see if he could get another response. "Are you okay? Can you hear me? Oh god, what have I done? What have I _done_?!" Out of the blue, he started to flail his arms wildly in the air – an obvious sign that the first thing Sora would do in situations like this was panic.

* * *

Someone leaned over his face and Cloud found himself staring at a hazy combination of skin tainted in a healthy bronze shade, messy tufts of spiky cinnamon brown hair and large sky blue eyes. A pouting mouth. And stars – yes, there were still stars and strangely, animated cartoon characters dancing across his vision. In addition to that, a terrible throbbing sensation was hammering against the side of his head, feeling much like hideously disfigured plastic moles being pounded into his skull by Aerith's mallet.

"…_you okay … hear me …?"_

A voice was forcing its way into his paralysed consciousness but it was distant and faint.

He blinked continuously for a second or two. Was it him or was that boy leaning over him **dancing? **The youth's arms waved frantically in the air in such energetic moves and Cloud foolishly wondered if the pounding in his head was actually a music beat that the boy was dancing along to.

"_What have I **done**?!" _

The voice was too loud, trying to bring him back to full consciousness. It seemed that remaining in a daze was somewhat peaceful. Perhaps he should just sleep just to remove that shrill voice and that awful pounding in his head away.

Cloud began to shut his eyes in order to surrender to nothingness.

* * *

Sora stopped flailing his arms when he saw the man's eyelids begin to slide shut slowly. On the verge of absolute panic and fear, he grabbed the man's shoulders and began to shake it, intending to snap him out of that objective.

"Stay awake! Please stay awake!" he pleaded desperately, even though the dazed blue eyes that had blankly stared at him had already disappeared behind closed lids. Prodding thoughts of funerals, lawsuits and court for murder haunted his mind. What had he done to deserve such a thing? He was too young to experience such harsh encounters!

Seeing that his fruitless shaking proved not to work, he decided on another objective. As roughly as he could he slapped the man's face with hopes that he would stir from his slumber.

"Come on! Open your eyes!"

Nothing. The slaps did nothing but colour the pale cheeks with a burning red shade. At this point, Sora was almost lost with ideas. And suddenly without consideration, he randomly, I repeat– **randomly** reached over and grasped the pale, slender nose with two fingers.

No –_seriously_.

* * *

Darkness was all that he could see. Numbness was all that he could feel. It was peaceful in a way being in a place distanced from the chaotic reality of his hectic life. What had happened to him just now? He couldn't really remember much. He was just floating in the abyss of black, black, black darkness.

From beyond the abyss, something reached over to him and grabbed hold of his nose. Unfortunately, it was a genuine fact that even as Cloud hated it when people tried to read the expression on his face, he hated it even more when someone decided to intrude into that personal space.

So when those fingers touched his skin, Cloud snapped his eyes open.

* * *

Eyelids snapped open, revealing furious deep blue eyes.

Sora screamed.

* * *

Aerith emerged, invigorated from her trip to the bathroom with a fresh application of makeup. She had been gone from Cloud's side for a full two minutes now but she ensured herself that the blonde male wouldn't mind the delay one bit. She could perhaps catch the small flicker of annoyance on his face once she arrived into their karaoke booth. When the blonde was around her, his feelings tend to slip accidentally out of his façade where she easily read them like a book. It was one of the qualities which told of how close the two were in actual fact.

As she blew away a curling lock of brown hair from her face, she squeezed past the jostling crowd in order to get to the row of karaoke booths at one end of the arcade. A small, inquisitive crowd had formed there and for a second, Aerith merely assumed that these people were queuing up to have a go at the popular booths.

A scream erupted above the overlapping noises of chattering tongues and game music. It was not a scream of fear and terror that could induce ripples of panic and distress to spread. It was merely a scream of astonished shock which stretched out continuously, bringing more and more heads to turn away from their game play toward the source of the noise.

Feeling something like alarm clutching in her senses, she quickly shouldered her way through the crowd where an astounding sight lay for her to see:

Cloud lay on his back on the floor, his eyes opened in a ferocious glare directed at a screaming boy who crouched beside him with two fingers pinching his nose.

* * *

Eyelids snapped open, revealing furious deep blue eyes.

Of course, Sora was familiar with this colour before the man lost consciousness. Those eyes had been out of focus, appearing so far away in that state of dazedness. He had promptly accepted the fact that his slamming the booth door open had been a little – alright then, **a lot** – powerful than he had expected. And because of his recklessness, he had caused a massive golf ball of a bruise to swell out from the poor man's temple. Thank god the force wasn't too brutal enough to draw blood – or he'd be in even _bigger _trouble.

But this time, as those eyes directed straight on him, he found that the colour became too intense for his liking. All traces of stupor had vanished and was replaced by a cold fury that pierced right into his being. He found himself shuddering slightly as he stared into the pools of intense blue.

The next thing he knew, he was screaming.

The man visibly cringed under his grasp (for Sora still held on to his nose) and his refined eyebrows furrowed with annoyance. With mustered strength, he harshly slapped Sora's hand away from his face where his nose changed colour from naturally pale to a rosy pink.

Instantly, Sora stopped screaming.

A brown-haired woman suddenly appeared by his side, her attention solely focused on the man lying before her, "Oh Cloud! Are you okay? What happened?"

Sora stumbled back, aware that the colour had drained from his face ever since he unwarily screamed in shock at seeing Cloud's – that **was **the man's name, right? – eyes snap open and scare him with its intensity. His heart pounded frantically in his chest as the aftermath and breathlessly, he answered her enquiry with gasps and muddled apologies.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry – it was an accident and I didn't know that he was behind the door so I opened it and hit him by mistake … but then it was my fault as well since I should've paid more attention to what I'm doing instead of thinking about smoothies all the time and … oh god, I've done it this time – I really did it now… I…" he bowed his head low, letting his brown spikes cover his features before crying out again, "I-I'm sorry!"

The woman stared at him hesitantly as if she was giving herself some time to assimilate Sora's explanation. Finally, she offered him a reassuring smile and a pat on the shoulder, "It's alright, dear. Catch your breath for a moment. You just need to be more careful next time, okay?"

She spoke this with a sincerely kind tone, unlike the ones he received from the other people lined up in the karaoke booth queue. In response to this, he merely hung his head in shame and guilt, now aware that the colour had returned to his face and spread over his cheeks in a red flush of mortification.

The woman helped the man, Cloud, stand up on his feet. He staggered a bit but quickly regained his balance as he leaned against her side. It took Sora almost all his courage to raise his head in order to fully express his sincere apologies to the man.

What he met with instead was a pair of deep blue eyes narrowed in a well-maintained glare of genuine, explicit **anger.** The fierce cold glower coupled with the golf-ball sized bump on his left temple was enough to send Sora shuddering unintentionally again.

"I-I.." The words of apology vanished from his mind, leaving him spluttering for a response. He had suddenly realised that this was perhaps the first time that someone was truly angry at him and that he was not quick enough to ask for forgiveness directly from said person.

"Cloud?" the woman supporting the blonde man enquired with surprise. She looked astonished at the way Cloud was glaring at Sora with such fierce intensity. It was as if the brunette was seeing the angry expression on his face for the first time.

She glanced back at Sora and seeing the guilty expression on his features, she quickly gave him an apologetic smile, "Don't mind him, he'll be alright. I'll take care of him."

Sora finally found himself gasping out, "A-Are you sure? Do you want me to call an ambulance just in case? Um, I… I could get some band-aids for you …I think my friend has a supply of them but then again I think they're a little too small and Tidus only carries them in his sports bag when he goes to the gym so that won't help so … um, um …" Once again, the brunet bowed his head again as he cried out his next words, "Is there anything else I could do to help?"

The woman could only stare at him for a few seconds before she finally made sense out of the words. Another kind, reassuring smile was given. "It's all under control, there's no need to worry. I'll take care of him."

As the two made their way from the booths towards the bathrooms, Sora staggered away from the accusing stares of the queue whom, after the incident now passed, then resumed their turn-waiting.

A horrible feeling of remorse had enveloped his form and his mind cast back to the incident which had not ended a few seconds ago. How could a harmless trip to the karaoke booth end disastrously like this? After all, if it weren't for his thoughts on flavoured smoothies, he wouldn't have stirred from his daze with enough energy to forcefully slam the door open with such impact that it could send a man sprawling onto the floor, a bruise forming on the spot where the door made contact with his head.

Out of nowhere, a smoothie was thrust up to his face before the hand that held it jiggled it from side to side. A grinning Tidus stood in front of him, carrying two smoothies.

"Waited that long?" the older of the pair asked before his face changed to that of a concerned one. "Sora? Are you okay? Did something happen?"

Sora stared at him with guilty eyes before shrugging his shoulders a little, "No, it's just …" absent-mindedly, his gaze trailed back to the karaoke booth where he had recalled the discovery of someone lying on the other side of the booth door. "It was an accident. I slammed the door into someone…"

A flash of furious deep blue eyes.

"… I didn't mean to do it…"

A glare that pierced right into his soul.

"…I couldn't say sorry to him."

"_Oh, Cloud! Are you okay? What happened?"_

Cloud … his name was Cloud …

Tidus released a sigh on behalf of Sora's expression. Truth be told, seeing Sora in such a state was not a comforting sight. After all, Sora was the one with the sunshiny personality. Just a few minutes ago the boy was bouncing excitedly while queuing up for a go at the karaoke booth. So the sudden change was a bit upsetting.

"Cheer up!" Tidus preened, slapping Sora's back and knocking the grim expression off his face. "Drink your smoothie – you'll feel much better."

Sora inserted the straw into his mouth and slurped the creamy concoction. Then he grimaced.

Tidus had gotten him the chocolate flavoured one.

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_**End (Chorus 1 –repeat)**_**

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**Notes:** Tidus singing/wailing in a karaoke booth? Sora slamming the door right into someone? Aerith's energetic wrath when it comes to playing arcade games? Cloud attempting at Whack The Mole Dancing Stage? Plus, imagine randomly grabbing some stranger's nose, screaming hysterically at his face and finding out later that he was the one for you?Tidus singing/wailing in a karaoke booth? Sora slamming the door right into someone? Aerith's energetic wrath when it comes to playing arcade games? Cloud attempting at Whack The Mole Dancing Stage? Plus, imagine randomly grabbing some stranger's nose, screaming hysterically at his face and finding out later that he was the one for you?

You know what? What I had written sounds so **random.** Everyone, embrace the Randomness.

I was supposed to post this chapter up ages ago but as I developed the story a bit, I had to go back to the first chapter, re-edit and re-read it until I got properly _sick _of it. So I hope those endless hours of re-reading finally paid off.

**Next chappie**: After the explosive mishap of slamming doors into unnoticeable strangers and randomly grabbing hold of slender noses, an unexpected encounter at the local café brings forth the introduction of sweet delicacies and sugar sachets, colourful sticky notes and bookmarked newspapers, text messages and swaying bangs! Plus, the return of the monotonous karaoke song track! Gaack, I have revealed too much! Please **review**!!


	2. Chorus 1: repeat 2X

Thank you for reading and continuing! I am deeply grateful for the reviews being sent!

Special thanks (and dedication of this chappie) to the following people: **Kingdom Lyoko of fedual heroes**, **Supper**,** The O.C. Addict **and **suika's wind of the celestial **(you don't need to review, you know. Plus, stop being so cruel to si Tommy). I will give you all Sora plushies as late Christmas presents. I'll even throw in a Riku plushie if I get more reviews for this chappie.

While reading, take note of the personalities of the characters and their relationships featured here. It took me a while to come up with the content of this chapter so I hope that you all will like it. I certainly did. This story was originally set for only four chapters but since everyone says that my chapters are too long, I have to extend the number. Thus, my previous notation about the appearance of "sugar satchets… text messages and swaying bangs" etc. will happen next chapter. Right now, I'm introducing everyone else and yes, this chappie is already around 5000 words. I really **can't** cut it down anymore.

**Disclaimer: **Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix (and Disney). Reno from FFVII belongs to Squaresoft.

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Chow Chow

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**_(Chorus 1- repeat 2X)_**

He flinched when something poked onto the plaster covering the bruise on his left temple. Lifting his head from the book he was currently reading, Cloud cast an irritated stare at his perpetrator whom, having induced a reaction from his victim, decided to interrogate the matter further by continuing his aimless poking onto the plastered wound.

The blonde recoiled from the prods, intensifying his glower and physically holding himself back from lashing out with his book, knowing for a fact that if he did indeed do something rash to oppose this sudden attack of poking fingers, Reno would only see this as an invitation to annoy him even more.

His red-haired co-worker smirked in seeing the deep blue eyes of the other fixed on him in attention and thankfully, he ceased his poking for now and began to speak, "About time I got you back to Earth."

Instead of poking, Reno flicked his finger onto the front cover of Cloud's book as a reference to his words. Apparently, it was a well-known fact to anyone who knew Cloud that whenever the blonde buried himself into any reading material, he focused all his attention on the current article thus becoming cut off from the outside world. Not even an elephant dancing in a tutu in front of him could pull him out of his reading reverie.

Reno adjusted the gleaming pair of sleek sunglasses resting on the crown of his head, "That must be one heck of a blow to have a bruise bandaged like that, eh Cloud? How did you get it again?"

As usual, Cloud chose to ignore those words. Instead, he folded the top of the page of the book and placed it aside before plucking the files Reno was carrying out of his grasp and instantly burying into its contents.

The action brought a frown to cross into the red-haired man's face as an obvious indication that Reno disliked having his words (or perhaps his own existence) ignored. So, he tried again to coax a verbal answer from the supposedly cold, silent blonde.

"Hey, I'm talking here. I said how did you get the–"

Somewhere behind them, there was a tinkling sound of keys. The pair of sunglasses that rested on Reno's crown vanished from its place, having been abducted by a quick set of small fingers. Reno cried out in panic at the disappearance of his precious shades, whipping around to locate where they had gone off to.

A young woman with short, black hair had somehow sneaked her way into the office cubicle without making any sound to alert the two occupants about her arrival. A keychain hung out of her jacket pocket, attached with several plastic character models from _Naruto_. In her hand she held Reno's sunglasses and in her large brown eyes, there held a small gleam of mischief.

Reno instantly fumed and extended out an open hand, "Oy! Give those back, Yuffie! Hey, I _mean_ it!" he added when Yuffie merely stuck out her tongue at him before placing the shades onto the crown of her own head. They were slightly bigger for her size and they threatened to fall from their support. She had to hold it in place as she twisted her face into a particular expression, speaking in a deep voice that mimicked Reno's own.

"Oh look at me, I'm Reno! Check out my so-called _long _hair!" Yuffie exclaimed, flicking her short hair with her fingers. Reno's fuming intensified and he pounced at her in an attempt to retrieve his stolen shades. However, the young woman was quicker; dodging away from the other's flailing arms.

"–And don't forget my cheap sunglasses!" she continued, winking teasingly at the red-haired man as she tapped on the shades' lens.

"They are **not **cheap!" came the ferocious retort and Reno swiped at her, missing her by an inch as she dodged away again in a fit of giggles, all before an immature chase began to take place around the room.

Cloud could only watch from his desk, his lips pursed impatiently for his two co-workers to stop this ridiculous fiasco that was taking place in his workplace.

"What's going on in here?" A cool, deep voice enquired with a tone lacing with curiosity. As if on cue, Leon strolled into the office to join the sudden rendezvous that always seemed to end up being in Cloud's office cubicle.

Seeing Leon in the room, Yuffie immediately hid behind him, tugging onto the older man's sleeve while pointing an accusing finger onto the startled Reno. "Squall! Reno's chasing me! Make him stop!"

"Yuffie, _you_–!" Reno growled in response before pouncing at the young woman who squealed behind Leon's back. The oldest of the group caught Reno by the shoulders to avoid any bodily collision. Yuffie stuck her tongue out at Reno, who was writhing in Leon's grip as his arms extended out in a frantic attempt to reach out and grab the smirking young woman who expertly twirled the sunglasses around with two fingers.

Leon sighed, letting go of one of Reno's shoulders so he could pluck the sunglasses out of Yuffie's grasp.

"Squall!" came the shrill cry followed by a stubborn pout.

This was returned by a hard look, "It's **Leon**." With that, Leon handed the waiting red-haired man by his side back his sunglasses as he shot words over his shoulder at the pouting young woman behind his back, "Yuffie, refrain yourself from teasing Reno so much. It's usually _you_ who starts a charade loud enough to attract unwanted attention. I'm doing you both a favour here."

"_Eh_?!" Yuffie shrank away, both from the allegation and the look that Leon was giving her. She bounded over to Cloud's side, tugging onto his sleeve urgently.

"Cloud! Tell Squall that I didn't mean to do it! Reno's the one who made me start it! Go on, Cloud! Say it!" she whined, tugging on the sleeve a couple more times before Cloud jerked his arm away from her grasp. He had seen the way Leon's hands were planted on his hips in such a maternal way that he no doubted silently agreed how the four's bond resembled.

Instantly, an image crossed his mind – in an old fashioned living room with a roaring fire, a suit-wearing Cloud sat on a leather armchair smoking a pipe and reading a hardcover book, ignoring the tugs of a whining Yuffie who cradled a doll in her arms. Leon stood a little distance away, clad in a lacy apron while brandishing a scolding finger onto a frowning Reno, whose baseball cap tilted to the side of his head. This was their relationship after all: Cloud, the father; Leon, the mother; and Yuffie and Reno, the children.

He shuddered slightly, not liking the image at all.

As Yuffie took a step back to release an annoyed huff at the unenthusiastic response she was getting (jingling her _Naruto _keychain in the process), Reno sneered at her as he placed his sunglasses back on his head, "_Ha_-ha! Got ya there!"

"And Reno," Leon lay a hand onto the jeering man's shoulder, halting him in his actions. "You know it's against regulations to wear sunglasses during office hours."

Reno stiffened at the words, obviously looking as if he was caught doing something illegal. A weak smile formed on his lips as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head in an effort to think up some words to explain his discreditable actions. However, it was already predicted by everyone else that Reno wouldn't give a damn about following office regulations set by their department supervisor, Auron. Reno even dressed out of place in the office, being clad in a simple jacket thrown over a white open-necked shirt, sleek sunglasses perched on his head and long red hair held back in a ponytail. He looked more like a gang member than one of the employees of the car business company they worked in.

"**Furthermore**," continued Leon when Reno wasn't quick enough to shoot back a retort. "Male employees are not to have their hair too long. Remember that?" He gestured towards the bright red ponytail that flowed to the middle of his back.

Unconsciously, Reno touched his hair, frowning as he pointed towards Leon's own shoulder-length brown locks. "What about you, eh, _Squall_? With hair like yours, you look like some Nancy-boy."

Leon coughed into his hand in an effort to cover up the blush that was spreading across his face. However, unlike the red-haired man, he was quick for a remonstration. "Ah-hem, according to Auron, the maximum length of hair a male employee could keep in the office is down to their shoulders…" he paused to let Reno form a look of horror on his face at the information before continuing, "So technically, you've exceeded your limit."

"Yeah, **Nancy-boy**," Yuffie chimed, leaning over to sneer at Reno's speechlessness. The look on the red-haired man's face was just _priceless_. A few seconds passed before Reno opened his mouth to deliver a reply but what came out was a squeak. Instantly, he closed his mouth, looking desperate for a way out to avoid the prodding stares of his colleagues.

Having really no choice now, he whipped around to address the remaining occupant left. "Cloud! Help me out here!"

The blonde in question maintained his blank stare on the wide-eyed Reno before turning away, pretending to have heard nothing.

"CLOUD!" was the red-haired man's response as he fumed on the spot. Seeing that the blonde still ignoring him, Reno scanned the man's desk for something to use when his eyes landed on the sleek black and white flip mobile phone lying conveniently by the PC desktop monitor.

With one swipe, he snatched the phone from its perch and held it in the air. Cloud, finally acknowledging the fact that something of his possession was taken from him, snapped his attention back on Reno, who waved his phone from side-to-side, letting the device's black cover shine in the office light.

"Heheh, how do you like it now?" Reno snickered as he waited for some emotion to surface from Cloud's blank façade. "Got your attention, didn't I–?"

Reno's words were cut off when the gleaming mobile phone disappeared from his hand, only to end up cradled in Yuffie's palm.

"Yuffie, you little snitch! I got that _first_!"

"Come and _get _it, **Nancy-boy**."

"Why you–!"

Thus began another chase around the room.

Cloud could only stay where he was; his eyebrows furrowed slightly, lips pursed into a frown. Leon, catching this look, guessed instantly what Cloud's mood was. Right now, it was painfully obvious that the blonde was very displeased at the presentation that was taking place right here in his office. Especially one that involved the use of his mobile phone.

It was time for Leon to step in and do his job.

"Okay, break it up! Break it up!" he called out, snatching the phone out of Yuffie's hand and ignoring her protests. "I think we should all go back to work now. If Auron decides to check up and sees us in here again, he'll have a fit."

"Tch," Reno snorted, recalling Auron's deadly glares whenever the supervisor caught him smoking at his desk. "Grumpy old man."

"Hey, he isn't _that_ bad," Yuffie said, slapping Reno's back and knocking his sunglasses askew. "Squall's right. We really should get back to work. Which reminds me – I gotta go downstairs and see Yuna about some sales reports. In the meantime …" she planted her hands on her hips and surveyed her colleagues with a gleam in her eyes. "…I'm generous enough to get you all drinks. Squall, coffee with two sugars and lots of milk as usual?"

Leon allowed a small smile to crawl up his lips, "Coffee with two sugars and lots of milk, as usual. Plus, it's **Leon**."

Yuffie pretended not to have heard the name-correction as she glanced over at Reno who beamed as he delivered his drink order, "I want coffee too – no sugar, no milk at all. I don't want to be as pansy as Leon is when it comes to his taste buds."

"Give it up, Reno," Leon spoke, folding his arms together as he let a sigh escape his lips. "We all know about your sensitivity towards bitter things like coffee. You did that sham last week remember? When you ordered plain coffee? Do you want us to take a picture of you squirming at the taste this time?"

Reno reddened when he recalled the incident and muttered over Yuffie's high-pitched laughter, "Fine! Give me one with just two sugars."

Yuffie ceased her laughing to address towards the silent blonde by the desk, "Cloud?"

"Glass of water." It was the first time that they had heard him answer verbally that day.

"**Water**?" Reno echoed in astonishment. "Who drinks _water _in this office anymore– Owowowowowowowowowow...!" his words lapsed into painful howls as Yuffie pulled him out of the room by his ponytail, the _Naruto _models of her keychain clinking into each other with every step she took. The two remaining males stared after them, their bickering continuing as they disappeared through the door of the office.

"Yuffie! Why do I have to come with you?"

"Who's going to carry all those drinks, eh? _You're_ the Department's delivery boy, Reno! Now stop complaining!"

"Hey!"

There was a pause just after the two people's voices faded into the distance. Cloud, finally getting the peace he had been waiting for, turned on his PC and patiently waited for the desktop to appear on screen. In the meantime, Leon strolled over to Cloud's desk and deposited the black and white mobile phone back on its original spot.

"It's funny how you could carry that thing without ever answering or making any phone calls," Leon commented in an amused tone, gesturing towards the portable device by the PC monitor.

Cloud used his mouse to open up a particular document before starting his workload by typing on the keyboard. Leon watched the pale, slender fingers of the other dancing frantically across the black keys without pausing.

"I keep missing them," Cloud replied suddenly that Leon had to blink a couple of times before he realized that the blonde was actually answering his earlier question.

"Hmph. Liar," Leon huffed with a playful smile. "You always keep your phone on every minute of the day. Plus, whenever I try to call you, I have to leave a voicemail in order for you to get back to me."

Cloud paused from his typing for a while to examine what he had written on screen. Lifting a hand to tuck a blonde strand of hair behind his ear, he murmured loud enough for Leon to hear before he resumed his typing.

"And don't I always get back to you?"

Leon, impressed that he was getting straight responses from his usually quiet co-worker, raised an eyebrow at the comeback. "Well technically yes. And it's always through **text messaging**," he paused to let his words take effect. "You know how a _pain_ it is to know that the only way to communicate with you is through text messages? Very displeasing for me."

Something like a smile crawled up the corner of Cloud's lips at the information. "That's because you can't text."

Leon wrinkled his nose at the bluntness of the answer and leaned against Cloud's desk, watching the concentration melded in the blonde's features as he continued his rapid typing. "You know people will find it less troublesome if they hear your oh-so-melodious, sweet voice on the telecom waves," he added with a grin.

Cloud stopped typing to give Leon a blank look that silently told the latter that he wasn't in the mood. In response to the stare, Leon merely tilted his head sideways, causing the brown strands of his hair to fall across his grey eyes.

Cloud resumed his typing.

"Out of complete and utter interest," Leon continued, reaching over to flick a lock of blonde hair away from Cloud's face to further expose the plaster on his temple. "How did you get that bruise again?"

The truth was that Leon already knew about the incident that happened on Cloud's birthday when the blonde took Aerith out to the arcade for a treat. But Leon took any opportunity he could grasp just to get Cloud to open up more in the office. Thus, here he was at it again, encouraging responses out of the aloof blonde's mouth with his questions.

Ignoring Leon's earlier actions (no matter how casual it was since Leon had a habit to be a bit too casual when it came to him), Cloud simply replied, "It was a door."

"A door? Hmm…" A thoughtful look crossed the brunet's face as he grasped his chin between two fingers. "So you got hit in the face by a door? Was it by a twist of fate that it happened on _your_ birthday? Could it be some sort of hint?"

Again, Cloud stopped typing to give Leon something like a look of suspicion, knowing the fact that Leon believed in events that were predetermined – or in other words, Fate.

Yes, it was such a strange coincidence that **Leon**, of all people, could believe in nonsense like that.

The corner of Leon's lips lifted up a notch, "Do you think that the opening of that _particular _door could be a sign to the unravelling of an upcoming change of _unusual _events? A door of **destiny**?"

Cloud could only stare. "It was a door of a karaoke booth," he said pointedly. "Besides, your 'door of destiny' didn't exactly open up for me." He was obviously referring to the plaster on his head.

Leon released a sigh before trying again, "Okay, maybe not the opening door bit. I was thinking that it was whatever lies **beyond** that door."

Cloud found himself considering this statement. The only thing that lay beyond the door of the karaoke booth was, if he could still recall, an energetic boy with sky blue eyes. Was Leon saying that the door slamming into his face some sick twist of fate? Will this incident open the doorway towards something? Lead him towards **destiny**, perhaps?

Cloud shook his head, clearing away those ridiculous thoughts.

_Nonsense._

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Sora peeled off a reminder note from its pad and stuck it onto an empty space on the wall where the fish-shaped blue memo joined in with the rest of the sea of multicoloured, multi-shaped sticky notes plastered all over the wall of his desk.

Slipping a couple of books and a packet of Pocky sticks into his bag, he dragged the satchel out of his room where he met with the sight of an untidy apartment. Piles of rubbish littered all over the floor, dirty plates stacked in the sink, empty cans of coke and other soft drinks lying abandoned on the dinner table, discarded shoes, socks, clothes thrown and tossed everywhere. It was like a mouse den from hell.

He sighed when he accurately guessed who the perpetrator of this incident was. Normally, Riku was a neat person – scratch that, Riku was a **perfectionist**. He was quite organised, athletic and hard-working when it came to his studies. He persevered at maintaining his high grades by staying up late, occupied with textbooks and papers on his desk.

So judging by the state of the apartment, Riku's grades must have dropped in the latest test. And Sora knew, since this sort of thing happened all the time, that whenever Riku's goal to maintain perfection (especially involving his grades) shattered, he would undoubtedly be thrown into a brief state of depression. Substantially, he would then spend the next few days grieving miserably for his failure, skipping classes to waste those valuable hours in bed or at the TV.

Basically, when Riku was down, the whole room would go down with him.

Yes, Sora could see that as he picked his way across the messy apartment room they shared.

He found Riku by the TV watching a program rerun. His silver hair stuck out in every direction, his clothes ruffled and dirty and there were bags under his eyes. Even though Riku spent more time in bed than Sora did, he still appeared more sleep deprived than the other. Cradled in his arms was a large packet of potato crisps.

Sora stood in front of his roommate, blocking his view, and planted his hands firmly on his hips.

Riku grunted displeasingly at the obstruction and chucked a crisp at Sora, hoping that it would move the brunet from his view. Unfortunately, the crisp missed him by a few centimetres and landed onto the floor, joining the other scraps of rubbish that Riku had carelessly discarded.

"Riku," Sora said in a stern tone. "Have you seen the state of this place? And who's going to end up cleaning afterwards?"

Sea-green eyes locked onto his sky blue ones, "Sora, can't you see I'm trying to watch some TV here? You're _blocking _my view."

"_Riku,_" Sora repeated with an exasperated huff. "Are you listening to me? Hel-loo?"

Riku merely crunched on another crisp loudly.

Sighing exasperatedly, Sora decided he should use his last resort.

Crossing his arms, he pouted.

In a few seconds, he saw Riku cringe at his actions and he turned his head away with a moan. "God, don't give me that – hey! Stop it, will you!" the silver-haired individual snapped when his brown-haired roommate maintained the infamous, stubborn pout that no one could resist. "Sora! You know I hate it when you use that against me!"

Finally, Riku seized the remote control and pressed a button, instantly switching the TV off. As the room lapsed into silence, Sora finally stopped pouting and grinned in satisfaction at the other's submission. Plopping himself beside his grumbling roommate on the couch, he reached over to help himself to the other's crisps, "Come on Riku, you should start going out more. You know I don't like it when you're like this. You slop all over the place."

Riku's eyebrows furrowed even more with displeasure, "Dammit Sora, I do not **'slop'**."

When Sora's hand crawled into the packet to steal another crisp, Riku wrenched it away from his reach, earning another stubborn pout from the brunet.

"Riku, don't be stingy. I just want another one!" Sora protested, grabbing hold of the crisp packet and pulling it towards him. His free hand came up, ready to plunge into the packet to extract a couple of potato crisps to soothe his taste buds.

The packet was viciously tugged away as a pair of sea-green eyes fixed into a defiant glare. "You want the whole _thing, _more like! Get your own crisps!"

"How could I? You finished them _all_!" The brunet made a grab at the packet and when Riku dragged it away from his reach; he was climbing onto the other boy's lap, his hand grasping out to seize the crisp packet hovering above their heads.

"Riku, give it!"

"Idiot Sora! Get the hell off me!"

As the two boys on the couch continued their fierce struggle for domination over the crisp packet, the forces inflicted to attain the snack caused the contents to fly out of their packet and shower all over their forms. Sora found himself seeing the golden forms of potato crisps raining down his vision and he was the first to snap out of his reverie.

"Riku, stop! The crisps–!"

His silver-haired roommate gave the packet another forceful tug and Sora found himself being pulled forward by the momentum. Crashing into Riku's chest and making him lose balance; they both tumbled off the couch and landed onto the floor with a thump. Sora found himself on top of Riku, who looked displeased at their previous performance. Both boys did not say a word to break the sudden silence, instead settled this incident with a simple exchange of stares.

It was a while before Sora noticed that apart from the grim expression melded on his roommate's face, there were potato crisps sticking out of Riku's unruly silver hair, giving him quite a ridiculous appearance. Without thinking, he began to laugh at the sight.

Riku's reaction was, at first, disbelief which quickly turned into annoyance. As he watched the merriment dancing across the brunet's sky blue eyes (not to mention listening to the funny quality of his laughter), he soon began to realise the hilariousness of the situation and started to laugh at the crisps nestling in the strands of Sora's brown hair. Soon, their laughter echoed around the room, enlightening the previous glum mood that had exceeded from the apartment's state.

Once it died down and lapsed back into silence, Sora climbed off Riku's chest and settled back against the foot of the couch. As Riku got up to lean against the brunet's side, Sora reached over to pick out a potato crisp from his silver hair, stuffing it into his mouth afterwards. Shortly, they were doing nothing but eating the crisps off each other's hair and clothes.

"Riku?" Sora said as he looked at the blank screen of the TV. "How about I try to cheer you up a bit, eh? Wanna come to Le Blanc's around the corner for breakfast?"

Riku rolled his eyes at the offer, knowing full well that the café, Le Blanc, had a reputation of selling the best sugary treats in town. "Sora," he began with a frown, "you know very well that I don't eat breakfast."

Technically, this was true. Riku just _couldn't _make himself eat anything early in the morning. An exception was today, of course, when his mealtimes were all over the place. During this state of brief depression, Riku mostly ate anything out of packets and cans rather than on plates.

The brightness contained in Sora's face did not falter at the statement. Sora continued as if he hadn't heard what Riku had said, "Le Blanc's got waffles today! I heard they're pretty good. Why don't we try some? I heard they serve their mushroom soup in a bread bowl, can you _believe _that? Imagine drinking soup and eating the bowl! Sounds pretty weird, huh?"

Riku merely smiled as he reached over to ruffle the brown spikes of Sora's hair, "Sorry but I just don't feel like having waffles today. If you want to go, just go then."

"Ehh! It won't be fun without you," Even with Riku's hand in his hair, Sora turned his head to protest when his offer had been turned down. His eyes took on a wide, pleading hue, "Look, if you can't stand the sight of food in the morning, I'll even hold your hair back once you start throwing up–"

Gripping the top of the brunet's head with his hand, Riku turned Sora's head away from his direction towards the TV opposite them. "Nice try but I don't think it's gonna work. Maybe some other time, okay? Now don't you have your committee meeting thing with Kairi this morning?"

"It's an Organizing Committee," Sora said to the TV even though it was obvious that he was actually addressing his roommate. Brandishing a finger into the air as an emphasis to his statement, he continued, "And it's not really a meeting. Kairi is just going to give me the ideas paper about the upcoming campaign event we're planning in a few weeks."

"Really?" Riku said, raising an eyebrow in interest. "What kind of campaign?"

"It's a 'Save The Turtles' campaign."

"Uh? _Turtles_?"

"Kairi decided to point out the issue about the illegal trading of turtle eggs," Sora explained as he brushed off Riku's hand from his hair. "And you know how Kairi organizes _everything_ when it comes to campaigns."

"And you took this because …?"

Sora huffed as he crossed his arms, "She forced me into it."

Riku placed his hand back on top of Sora's head and ruffled his hair again, "Poor Sora. Still holding onto Kairi's hand, eh?"

"I can decide for myself!" Sora protested with wide eyes. "It's just when it comes to Kairi … she just has her ways."

They paused for a second to let the image of Kairi to cross their minds. Knowing the red-haired girl's keenness for wildlife, there was a high chance that this campaign would to take form in marched protests. Sora could imagine Kairi forcing him into a turtle suit as they marched down the street, holding up banners and signs and shouting for justice. With Kairi, _anything _was possible.

"Well," Riku said, interrupting Sora's thoughts. "If you're planning to go to Le Blanc's _and _meet up with Kairi on one very late morning, then I suggest you go now. I'm sure you're familiar with her dislike for late-comers."

"Guess you're right," Sora sighed as he stood up from the floor, brushing the dirt off his trousers. Without acquiring any consent, he bent down to help pull the other boy on his feet before casting a look around the apartment. "Do me a favour," he added with a smile. "Clean this place up afterwards, okay? I'll make us both dinner tonight, how's that?"

The silver-haired youth merely raised an eyebrow at the offer. "_You_? Cook dinner? Forget it. The last time you volunteered, you set the lamb chops on fire and in the end; we had to eat white rice with burnt meat. Nasty." He patted the top of Sora's head with his hand, "_I'll _clean up _and _cook dinner. _You_ just stay out of my way."

"Riku!" Sora whined, slapping the other's hand away and leaving his brown, spiky hair tousled.

In response to this, the silver-haired youth just smiled before reaching down to lift Sora's satchel from the floor and pick his way across the apartment towards the front door.

Sora hesitated for a tad second, startled at first at Riku's sudden actions. It was all before he realised that the other boy was merely carrying his bag for him, perhaps as a gesture of apology for his grumpy behaviour. Knowing this, Sora felt the blush return to his cheeks as he shyly made his way to the door where a patient Riku waited for him.

"You know you don't need to see me out," Sora murmured as his bag was deposited into his arms. The fact was – it was customary for them to show caring gestures towards one another in the form of simple, small acts. Even as Sora found this deed quite embarrassing for him, he couldn't help but feel somewhat flattered.

Riku simply rolled his eyes before taking hold of Sora's shirt and straighten it in the process. "I need to make sure that you don't trip over all the crap I left around the house," he said as he swept off the debris that clung onto the other's clothes. "Plus, you're feeble in carrying that bag of yours," he then added, brushing off the potato crisp remains that still resided within the brunet's hair.

"Hey!" Sora blushed darkly at his roommate for fixing him up. Embarrassed, he backed away from the other and hoisted a strap of his bag over one shoulder. Giving the other one glance of appreciation for his concerns (however sarcastic Riku made it sound), Sora reached for the doorknob.

The next thing that happened made Riku blink with surprise. As Sora turned the doorknob, he then pushed the door open just a crack in order to peer outside. When his eyes took on a confirming hue that no one was standing outside, it was finally then that the brunet opened the door a little wider to let himself out.

Puzzled by this odd performance, Riku caught hold of the door before it closed and leaned against it as he gazed at Sora's form. "Since when do you open doors like that?" he asked curiously, knowing the fact that Sora usually burst through a door with enthusiasm. So why the wariness? Suddenly, Riku's eyes grew wide when he finally figured it all out. "Don't tell me," he said as sky blue eyes took on a guilty hue. "You rammed a door right into someone, didn't you?"

You could call it a habit if you like. Whatever Sora did wrong to make him feel guilt-ridden, the brunet would become overly cautious about it in order to prevent the same incident happening again. In this case, Sora was being wary about the force he used to open the door and in addition to that, the question of the presence of any persons who stood behind that door. It wasn't really the brunet's fault really for acting in such strange ways. It was simply so he wouldn't repeat his mistakes all over again.

Sora nodded slowly to verify the accurateness of his roommate's answer before hanging his head with shame as he recalled the incident in the arcade.

To be honest, he had never encountered with such an intense glare before. Especially one from a pair of deep blue eyes.

"Who was it?"

"Huh?" Sora said, blinking when Riku's words went straight through his head. The silver-haired youth tilted his head to the side as if he was trying to see the brunet better from his place against the half-open door.

"I said," Riku repeated at a slower pace. "Who did you slam the door into?"

Sora hesitated before replying:

"His name was Cloud."

_**

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End (Chorus 1 –repeat 2X)

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**Notes:**

I _love_ Cloud's relationship with his three colleagues in the office because they remind me a bit of the Twilight Town gang – despite the fact that the four's bond resembles that of a family. I took the idea of Cloud not answering his mobile phone from _Advent Children _and placed in an uncanny talent in rapid text messaging instead. I do like the idea of Cloud typing up a text message on his phone.

Furthermore, I really liked how I portrayed Sora and Riku's relationship, especially the part when they eat crisps off each other. The act of Riku carrying his bag for him to the door just so he could see him off is an obvious indication of how the two really care for one another.

Well, I can tell you that the next chapter will _definitely _contain the Le Blanc café reunion scene. I'm very excited for this chapter and I hope you stick around to read it.

**All reviews sent to me will be valued, polished and put up on display. Feedback is very much appreciated. I _need _to know how I'm doing. **


	3. Chorus 2: repeat

A/N: Yes, it's been four months. And this chapter took so long to write but in the end, I managed to finish it, read it, edit it, re-read it, re-edit it again and again just to make sure everything flows well. A thanks to **suika's wind of the celestial **for checking it. At the moment, it's around 8000+ words – longest I've done for one chapter. So please don't be put off by the length.

Lovely, lovely thanks to these beautiful people who have made the effort to review:

**Higuchimon **(I'm a sucker for slow romances), **Riku Love**, **CxSLover**,** katgirlofthenight** (love you!! -), **G **(Step _away_ from the doors –grins-), **XxTypoMasterxX**, **Neko Roxas**, **Black-Dranzer-1119**,** Metal Chocobo**,** Dijah **(i.e. **Weirdette** – thanks for your review! And thank Jibby for threatening you –laughs evilly-), **Kingdom Lyoko** **of fedual heroes **and **The O.C. Addict.**

Enough of my rambling for now.

Let's get started.

**Disclaimer: **The _Kingdom Hearts_ game series (Square Enix), _Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds, Teen Titans Theme _(both by Puffy Ami Yumi) and _Chow Chow _(by DeliSpice)songs -- **ne-uh, not mine.**

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Chow Chow

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_**(Chorus 2- repeat)**_

It was difficult to describe the café, Le Blanc, really. To be honest, it was simply too grand to be called a café. Cosy square tables sitting between puffy cushioned armchairs overlooked walls decorated with exotic tapestries of flowers and multicoloured folded fans. The furniture was elegant and sophisticated – its design merging tastes of the Italian and the Arabic. Windows were draped with long, sweeping curtains and the marble floors were decked with a variety of outlandish rugs. At the far corner of the café, love-seats and sprawling couches occupied the domains.

Sora took all this detail in as he carefully pushed the glass door (that was adorned with tiny folding fan trinkets that tinkled into each other) open and stepped into the cool surroundings of the café. His lips curled slightly when he realised that the techno disco music flowing from the unseen speakers around the café did not match with the place's interior design. Sure enough as he made his way across the many occupied tables, he heard a small squeal emerge from beyond the café counter and a high-pitched female voice whined out:

"But Paine! I _want _to listen to this CD! I bought this from Disco Leez just this morning!"

"_No_, Rikku. I want you to put Le Blanc's CDs back into the sound system now."

"Can't I just finish listening to _this _song first?"

He avoided colliding into an old woman who was making her way towards the exit, carrying a shopping bag bulging with many cat food tins. Sighing heavily for the near miss, relieved that he hadn't made someone else fall over and bruise their head; he cast his mind back on the task at hand (which happened to be choosing whether he should have waffles or the mushroom soup) and turned towards the currently empty counter.

"Kyah!"

A meaningless word fumbled out of his lips when his side bumped into something soft and warm. Staggering slightly to regain his balance, he turned towards the object he had bumped into while mumbling a small apology for his careless actions.

"Sorry, I-I didn't see you–"

His gaze lifted towards the man whose spiky blonde tresses framed his naturally pale face, his slender nose and his deep, deep blue eyes.

"–there."

It was strange how, at that precise moment, everything in Sora's mind vanished the moment he laid eyes on the man standing beside him: clad in a work attire consisting of a red, unbuttoned shirt under a loose tie with sleeves folded up to his elbows and exposing a rather elegant black strapped watch that embraced his pale wrist. Dark pants and a sleek black briefcase sitting by his leather loafers completed his look.

And as for Cloud, an emotion of astonishment slipped out of his features with unambiguous obviousness, showing that he, too, was surprised by this unanticipated meeting. In a few seconds they merely stared at each other, their forms frozen in place, before Sora decided that he should break the silence that they had somehow sunk into unconsciously.

"Um, hello."

The greeting instantly snapped the blonde man out of his brief state of surprise and at once, his features settled back to its usual blank exterior.

And then came another moment of frozen stillness as Sora's greeting lingered uncomfortably in the air above them. The man standing before him remained silent with lips fixed in an impassive straight line. Immediately, Sora felt a certain feeling of uneasiness rising up his chest. Why hadn't Cloud said anything to him yet? Was it the way Sora had greeted him? Did it sound a little weird? Perhaps Cloud couldn't remember who he was…

As the awkward silence between them stretched on, Sora's shoulders began to shift uncomfortably.

"AAAIII!"

From beyond the marble clad counter, the high-pitched female voice returned to deliver another whiny squeal, shattering the awkward atmosphere between the pair. Two pairs of blue eyes averted away from each other's, somewhat relieved.

"Owww…Paiiiinne! Okay, alright! I'll change the damn CD, jeez!"

"Never mind that now. You're supposed to be at the counter. Now get your butt out there and tend those customers."

"Right! Right! Geez, Paine – you don't need to shout." There followed the low muttering that was too incoherent to make sense of.

"I heard that, Rikku."

"Tch – Myehh!"

A girl burst out of the curtain of beads that decorated the doorway leading out of the staff lounge. Her blonde hair was braided and tied with colourful beads that swayed about her face whenever she moved. Her uniform took form in a tight maroon and white bodice sewn with frills and a few sequins, tucked into an extremely puffy skirt that swished from side to side as she walked. Pinned to her bodice was a nametag that spelt out her name ('Rikku') in curly letters. As she bustled to the front of the counter, rubbing a small bruise on her wrist (someone must have pinched her quite hard there), the sweet smell of her perfume (a mixture of tropical fruits) lingered into their nostrils.

"Good morning!" the counter-girl, Rikku, chirped with a grin and a twinkle in her eyes, despite having been pinched by her colleague not just a second ago. "Welcome to Le Blanc's! What would you two gentlemen like to order today?"

Seeing that service was now available (and a chance to escape from Cloud's presence), Sora made a move forward towards the counter, not anticipating that the other man had the same intention as well. The two individuals bumped stiffly into each other's sides again before Sora immediately jerked away from the touch, and at the same time, looked up and met with Cloud's deep blue eyes again.

A naturally pale hand gestured towards the counter in one graceful sweep, "After you."

It took a while for Sora to realise that the deep, quiet voice that spoke those two words had belonged to Cloud.

Suddenly, he found himself blushing.

"Oh no, please! After _you_!" the brunet blurted out, flustered in the face as Cloud blinked at the reaction. And before the blonde man could have any chance to reply to this, Sora backtracked a few steps in order to give the other space and Cloud had no other choice but to take the first order.

As the blonde man pushed his briefcase forward with the tip of his loafer, his blonde bangs fluttered about his face and for the first time, Sora could finally spot a white square plaster bandaged onto his temple.

_Oh._

He backed away a few more steps, his front teeth digging into his bottom lip and his entire form stiffening at the discovery.

_Oh gosh,_ were the words that floated across his mind. _Maybe the reason why Cloud hadn't said anything was because of that karaoke booth. He's still mad at me about it…_

A sinking feeling of guilt caused him to look away. He was recalling how those deep blue eyes, usually void of emotion, had been intense in irritation and anger on the night at the arcade. What should he do now? Sora could never tolerate a sour mood if he could help it. Should he leave the café and run away from Cloud's presence (and his hostility)?

If that were to happen, he knew he would regret it for life. Just recalling the fact that one person could cast hating eyes onto him was enough to haunt Sora for the rest of his days. No, he knew he shouldn't. There must be a way to turn this thing around. He should at least **apologise **properly for that unfortunate accident on the night at the arcade. It was, after all, the most obvious thing one should do …

"Next please!"

The high-pitched, shrill voice of the counter-girl snapped him out of his thoughts and averting his eyes back onto the counter, he was surprised to see that Cloud was not there. The blonde must have collected his purchases and went on his way.

The counter was bare and welcoming and the distant smell of something cooking inside made his stomach complain loudly.

"Heh," came a sheepish, embarrassed grin and he firmly decided he had no choice on the matter. He had come to Le Blanc's to eat some late breakfast, didn't he? So there was no need for second thoughts just because the man he had crashed the karaoke booth door into happened to be there as well.

He cringed at those thoughts and stepped up to the counter.

"_Good_ morning! What would you like today? Our delicious pastries or perhaps our deluxe super-mega-deli sandwiches? Maybe you prefer something sweet like our Caramel Bon Bela-whatchamacalits? Or soup in a bread bowl? Come and take your pick, sir."

Sora only smiled at the energy that the counter-girl possessed and looked up at the menu board to enunciate his order.

"Can I have the–"

"I'd like to ask your opinion," interrupted Rikku, brandishing up a finger in emphasis as her grin grew even wider. "What do you think of the Le Blanc's dress uniforms? A crafty masterpiece? A trendy catwalk hit? Or maybe an adorable party dress? What do you think?"

As she said this, she twirled around, causing the frilly, puffy skirt to swish from side to side and Sora wondered how on earth could anyone wear such a skirt that puffed up so stiffly like that.

"It's–" he began.

"Cute, isn't it? Is that what you wanted to say? I think so too! I think so too!" Rikku exclaimed, clapping her hands together happily all before she began to do a little jiggle on the spot and further swishing the puffy skirt from side to side.

Sora doubted he'd ever deliver his order in time before he had to run and see Kairi later.

At this point, the curtain of beads parted to let another girl saunter out of the staff room. Taller than Rikku with stern features, ruby eyes and short, cropped hair slicked with strands of silver, Sora noticed she also wore the same frilly uniform as the other girl, with the addition of fishnet stockings and high-heeled black buckled boots. The nametag pinned to her bodice blared out her name: 'Paine'.

Seeing Rikku still jiggling on the spot by the counter, she quickly strolled over and shoved her aside.

"Hey! Paine!" came the blonde girl's whinging. All before the taller girl sent the other a look.

"You're doing it again, Rikku. No asking customers about the dress uniforms."

"But Paine! I want to know that everyone likes this dress too. It's such a shame that you don't appreciate how hard it is for Le Blanc herself to think up this design. Why can't you be more like Yunnie and just agree with me?"

"This has nothing to do with Le Blanc or Yuna. Your little survey is scaring the customers."

"_Tch. _You know what your problem is, Paine? It's 'cause you're–"

"Rikku, **no**."

"Can I just order?" Sora finally found his voice again. He felt exhausted in someway. Listening to the girls bicker somehow took the energy out of you.

Paine snapped out of her personal situation, averted her firm ruby eyes on Sora and addressed him in a much more professional tone (perhaps a more droning tone) than Rikku could manage.

"I apologise about my co-worker's behaviour. She tends to get carried away sometimes. Enough of that, what would you like to have today?"

* * *

"Rikku, don't eat the customer's food."

"I can't help it, Paine. I love waffles too, you know."

Emerging from the depths of the kitchen were Paine and Rikku, the former carrying a tray supporting a plate of thick, fluffy waffles with cream and honey on the side along with a small jug of syrup. Next to the plate was a white teapot, a cup and a saucer.

"Here," said Paine, holding out the tray to a very hungry Sora who noticed that her fingernails were painted black and tattooed with white skulls. Taking the tray gratefully and hearing Rikku's chirping tone of "Enjoy your meal, sir", Sora eagerly turned to face the rest of the café.

It was only then when he realised that the majority (if not all) the square tables had all been conveniently occupied.

Hesitating slightly to tell himself that it just wouldn't be possible that all tables were occupied, he carefully scanned the café again, taking note of all the tables and in the end, he had to agree with the fact that yes, all the tables were indeed taken.

A disbelieved Sora stupidly stood there with his tray balanced in his hands and a sinking feeling in his stomach. Now there were no places for him to sit down at! What should he possibly do now? The thought of strutting back to the counter and asking the two cashiers to wrap up his food sounded displeasing (as Sora was the type of person to instantly devour any meal he happened to purchase at that time).

It was all before his eye caught hold of the pale blonde spikes belonging to a man sitting on one of the tables by the window, stirring a tall glass of thick pink liquid. His table consisted of four chairs, one in which he had already occupied. Out of all the sitting places in the café, Cloud's table looked far the emptiest.

A strange thought invaded into Sora's mind and somehow he had a sudden urge to march up to Cloud's table and sit on one of the unoccupied chairs, regardless of the fact that he wanted to stay as far away from the blonde man as he possibly could. And it was in just a few seconds that the sudden compulsion to face the man who had glared daggers at him grew stronger and at once Sora understood the new task at hand. Apart from finishing up his waffles before seeing Kairi later, he _must_find enough guts to apologise to Cloud. He _must a_pologise to the man who supported the bruise acquired from the violent slamming of karaoke doors unintentionally caused by him.

With one final nod towards himself and a few heaving breaths, Sora strolled across the café and reached the particular one by the window where the occupant carefully turned over a page of the broadsheet newspaper and resumed his reading, oblivious of the subsequent re-encounter.

Sora, who was gripping the edges of his tray with whitened knuckles, stopped just a few metres away from Cloud's table and with a rising agitation in his chest, cleared his throat for attention.

Cloud did not stir.

Sora cleared his throat for a second time and then a third time when a few seconds passed. Seeing no response whatsoever from the man, he nervously nibbled on his bottom lip, unsure of what to do now. Why didn't Cloud hear him? Was he still a bit too quiet to attract his attention? Or was Cloud ignoring him on purpose?

The last thought worried him a lot and with mustered audacity, he bent his back, leaned over and tilted his head in order to peer up Cloud's lowered face.

* * *

"Um, hello? Excuse me?"

Halfway reading through an article about crashed market dealers and corrupting businesses, Cloud suddenly became aware that someone was leaning towards his face. As blinking blue eyes hardened in irritation for the disturbance of his peaceful reading, Cloud lifted his gaze from the paper onto the perpetrator – only to find the face of a boy peering up at him.

Cinnamon brown bangs fell across eyes of sky blue that was silently asking permission to speak. Even though it was unseen, there was no doubt that Cloud could guess that this boy had a vibrant, lively nature.

His bruised temple throbbed slightly and ignoring this, Cloud simply maintained his stare on the boy as an implication that he finally had his attention.

Sora felt his breath catch in his throat when he discovered that the deep blue eyes, just several inches away from his own, were actually faintly tinted with a small hue of bright green. It was only obvious if one had enough courage to stare right into those piercing blue orbs and maintain their gaze until they spot it.

He pulled away with flushed embarrassment and bent down his back into an automatic bow, unfortunately forgetting that he still held his tray in his hands and his carelessness knocked his cup off the saucer with a loud crack. A small yelp escaped his lips as he reflexively steadied the tray in his hands all before a sigh of relief was released when he found that nothing had been damaged much.

He was aware that Cloud was still watching him, waiting for his enquiry.

"I…" he started and gulped down the lump in his throat which had somehow oddly placed itself there. "Sorry to be bothering you. Is it okay if I sit here… I-I won't be any trouble, if that's what you're thinking. It's just that …there are no more empty tables out there."

Smiling weakly for his attempt, he emphasised his point by stepping aside to let Cloud observe the rest of his surroundings. He was inwardly glad that his words were very true. Every table (if not seat) in the café was occupied. And Cloud's table happened to have the only available seats left.

Cloud pursed his lips slightly at this sudden intrusion to his privacy. He was normally a reserved individual, keeping to himself and rarely socialising with others. And he would be damned if he agreed on sharing _his _table with some stranger. Literally, this act of sharing tables was like an opening into his personal space. And like the incident with Sora grabbing onto his nose for some apparent reason, he hated it when people decided to intrude into that space.

"So is it okay? I really won't be any trouble, I promise, promise, promise! Please?"

Sora's eyes widened with hope as he gingerly bit on his bottom lip. He was aware that the tray was becoming heavy in his hands.

Cloud lips pursed even further.

"**Please**?"

Deep blue orbs finally closed in surrender. With a final nod, he averted his attention away from the boy standing by his table onto the broadsheet newspaper in front of him.

With a small, satisfied smile, Sora placed his tray onto the table and plopped down onto the seat opposite the blonde man.

As more techno beats flowed out of the speakers in the café (it turned out Rikku's CD was still playing despite what Paine had demanded), Sora began to muse upon the task ahead (no, not the late breakfast consuming). He needed to find a right, precise moment to finally blurt out what needed to be said. By the end of this little unexpected rendezvous, he must have Cloud's acceptance of his apology. After all, if one got hit in the head by a karaoke booth door, they should at least receive an apology of some sort, right?

But then again, there was the question of whether his apology would be accepted or not. Even if Sora did summon up enough guts to spill, if Cloud rejected his apology, what would happen then? He would feel hated for life! He would regret it for life! He would start _avoiding doors_ from now until end! What happens if the next door he opens ends up killing the person behind it?

No, he told himself. If he had to _beg _for Cloud's forgiveness then he will **beg**. There was nothing stopping him at all. Nothing.

With newfound determination, Sora looked up in preparation for his announcement.

He stopped.

Cloud was unmoving, his head bent down, his blonde bangs swaying slightly about his face and his eyes – two hard, deep blue (with that tiny tint of green) gems – solely focused on the newspaper in front of him. It was then when Sora realised that speaking up now was not a really good time.

_When it comes to reading, Cloud is completely zoned out from everything. _

It was then when Sora realised that he had been **staring** at Cloud for bit too long. Blinking at this realisation, he looked away, dismissing the thought with a slight shake of his head. It was all before he told himself that he should at least start on consuming his late breakfast.

After all, cold waffles didn't taste nice.

_

* * *

Ssszccchhhtttt!_

The sound was sharp and loud enough to be heard over the steady beating of the disco track playing from the overhead speakers. It was loud enough to throw Cloud out of his reading reverie. Deep blue eyes stared at the article, wide with bewilderment. Which paragraph had he been on? Something on consumer products? Or had he been examining the picture of smiling businessmen shaking hands to please the camera?

Lifting up a hand to tuck a blonde strand of hair behind one ear, Cloud fixed his eyes back on a random paragraph, hoping to resume the sentence he had been cut off from.

_Szch..cccchhhhhttttt!_

He lost himself again and at the same time, without looking up from his paper, he recognised that the noise that threw him off his concentration was a tearing sound of paper. Half-conscious of his surroundings, a faint sound of something being tipped into porcelain followed afterwards.

_SSZCCHHT!_

His eyes finally darted themselves away from the newspaper article and settled onto the sight ahead of him. The boy sitting opposite had loudly torn off the top of three sugar sachets and was, at the moment, tipping the sugar into his teapot.

Cloud's eyes widened.

The **teapot**?

Looking back down at his paper, he frowned at the thought. Wasn't it customary to tip your sugar into your cup and not your teapot? What was this boy thinking, tipping sugar into his teapotanyway?

_Clink! Clink! Clink!_

Once again, he couldn't help but this time, raise his head from his paper to shoot a glare at the boy opposite about the noise he was making. And his mental rants on sugar tipping into teapots and not cups were still lingering in his mind.

His glare faded into that of surprise when his eyes landed onto the boy, whom at the moment, was distracted in stirring his teapot with a spoon. There was a delighted twitch of a smile highlighting his lips and his sky blue eyes were filled with glee as he eagerly peered into the pot. That particular smile lit up his entire face, giving the impression of childish innocence.

Cloud could only blink at the strange sight.

_He likes to watch the sugar swirl in his tea. _

It was then when he realised that his looking had quickly turned into staring when the boy looked up from his teapot and acknowledged his attention. As eyes of quizzical blue clashed with those of astonished blue, there was a dramatic pause of held gazes – all before Cloud's eyes were the first to break away from the other's.

They were back on their businesses. As the brunet poured himself a cup of tea before starting on his waffles, Cloud sipped his tall glass of pink liquid before continuing his reading.

He began to realise that he was continually reading the same paragraph again and again without taking note of the facts. How much percentage was the sales loss again? What were the factors which could have influenced the loss? Why couldn't he concentrate as much anymore?

His eyes were absent-mindedly straying away from his article to settle onto the brunet opposite him.

Then he found himself _gawking_.

The boy had just emptied the **entire** mini-jug of syrup onto his honey and cream covered waffles. The once attractive-looking meal of fluffy waffles was transformed into a sloppy, sugary mess. He was glad he didn't pick anything to eat today.

Cutting a small piece of his sodden waffles, Sora manoeuvred the fork into his mouth – all before his eyes caught hold of Cloud's staring ones.

Feeling a little humble, he pulled the forkful of syrup-covered waffle out of his mouth and held it out to the blonde man.

"Would you like some?"

When he spoke those words, a string of gooey syrup broke off from the waffle and dripped messily onto the table.

Cloud cringed and quickly shook his head with a small air of politeness.

In response to this, Sora popped the waffle back into his mouth and leaned back slightly as the sweet taste of syrup mixed with honey and cream washed over his tongue. Goodness, was it delicious! Munching on the sloppy piece with a little grin, he acknowledged the fact that Cloud's eyes were still fixed on him from over the top of his newspaper.

At once, a small feeling of embarrassment rose in his chest and he fought off the urge to blush. His eating performance must look a little too animated if Cloud's attention was diverted away from his article.

He swallowed his waffle and, clearing his throat in order to make sure his words came out right, addressed towards the blonde man's pink drink, "Are you not eating anything?"

He was glad that his voice came out poised with courtesy, void of any shaking nerves or uneasiness. Watching Cloud taking his query in, the man answered in an almost nonchalant yet equally polite tone that mirrored his own, "I'm not hungry at the moment."

Sora smiled slightly at the response before averting his eyes away from Cloud's, absent-mindedly settling on the tall glass of pink liquid sitting beside the broadsheet. As he raked his brains to think up another ice-breaker, he realised that he wanted to hear more of Cloud's voice. The train of thought continued to run across his mind as his eyes examined a small piece of pineapple stuck on the rim of Cloud's glass.

_That voice …_

_It just has … an interesting ring to it. _

"Cinderella."

Sora snapped out of his reverie and realised that Cloud was still looking at him. The blonde had just spoken again, shattering the silence that always rested between them.

"I-I'm sorry?" Sora said, his expression puzzled.

Cloud began to absent-mindedly stir the contents of his pink drink with his straw. "The drink is called Cinderella," he spoke with that same quiet volume that was audible enough for Sora to hear. "It's a combination of strawberry puree and pineapple juice ice blended together with a bit of fresh milk. Quite nice."

Sora told himself that this was perhaps the first time he had heard anyone as less-spoken as Cloud speak out a long sentence. And he was right about his aforementioned opinion. There _was_something nice about listening to Cloud's voice, even if it was quiet and blasé and even if the topic had just been to compliment a certain drink.

He realised that his silence probably meant that their attempts at a conversation had failed because Cloud, looking somewhat flustered at the thought that he had just blurted out something as random as a drink called Cinderella to a stranger sharing his table, returned back to his article. Absent-mindedly, he reached up to tuck a stray strand of blonde behind his ear and ignored the wide-eyed, curious look the boy was giving him.

* * *

The atmosphere between them felt lighter somehow after their very few exchanged words and Sora, nonetheless, felt a bit more comfortable that they seemed to be in much better terms.

Every scrap and drop of food on his plate had been consumed by his mouth, leaving the empty platter facing him astonishingly clean. Sticking his syrup-coated fingers into his mouth, the brunet licked off the last of his breakfast, a small smile breaking out of his lips. It had been a delicious meal, of course. He would've gladly complimented the waffles to the café staff if he were to sacrifice his being to Rikku's wrath of gushing over her dress uniform, in which she was currently doing so to an unfortunate customer by the counter.

His fingers came out uncomfortably sticky and Sora rummaged around his side of the table for some spare napkins only to find none. It turned out both Rikku and Paine had forgotten to slip in the most important object after every meal into his tray. He sighed wearily and wondered if the café had a washroom hidden somewhere in the back.

A white sheet suddenly materialised in front of his face and he blinked as his eyes distinguished the patterns of _dancing pink elephants in tutu skirts, balancing on large beach balls_ imprinted upon its surface.

_What on earth…?_

There was a bewildered and **very still** pause.

_

* * *

Swish. Swish. Swish._

In the background of this frozen scene, the counter-girl, Rikku, twirled past their table, her puffy skirt making swishing noises as she moved.

"_Lucy in the sky with diamonds … Lucy in the sky with diamonds…"_

Humming a song under her breath, Rikku, taking no notice of the unmoving figures of her customers, swooped up Sora's empty plate into her arms and twirled away, her skirt swishing elegantly from side to side.

* * *

The still atmosphere broke when Cloud waved the wet tissue (the aforementioned white sheet in Sora's point of view) imprinted with pink elephants in Sora's face and the brunet snapped out of his trance and blushed hard at his immobile behaviour not a second ago. How an idiot he must have looked to Cloud! What had he just been doing, sitting there transfixed, still and looking awfully stupid?

"Th-Thanks!" he squeaked, taking the wet tissue from Cloud, who withdrew his hand and proceeded to seal shut the open packet of _baby wipes_ he was holding with his other hand. Sora, surprised as he was that an individual such as Cloud could even _carry _things like this, noticed that the baby wipes packet was printed with dancing zoo animals in tutu skirts. A ribbon-wearing monkey was hanging from the corner of the letters of the logo: **Zoo Friends_ - soft & scented baby wipes_**.

Fighting off the urge to smile, he busied himself with wiping his sticky hands with the wipes and instantly, the scent of artificial strawberries drifted delightfully up his nostrils.

And before he knew it, he was blurting out a query with absolute excitement, "You like strawberries, don't you?"

Cloud found himself blinking. "Huh?" came the stupefied and shocked utterance.

Sora cringed in his seat, realising that he had blurted something random out in the open, and thinking that his exclamation was rude, he frantically waved his arms in an apologetic manner, "N-not that it's a bad thing or anything, I mean, from what you're drinking then it _must _be obvious …that you like strawberries… but then the Cinderella is blended with pineapple juice which probably means you like pineapple too so I might just be jumping into conclusions. But then again, your wipes are strawberry scented – and you're kind of drinking a strawberry drink so you _must _like strawberries so –"

He paused when he noticed the absolutely **stunned **expression on Cloud's face and recoiled his words with the emergence of a single-handedly hard blush, "Oh no, I'm- I'm rambling, aren't I? I shouldn't have …I …"

And like the incident at where the two had crossed paths for the first time, Sora bowed his head low, letting his brown spikes cover his features, "…I'm sorry!"

Cloud could only stare at the boy, feeling slightly taken aback by the exaggerated bowing and murmured out a, "No, it's alright," because he could not find anything else to say.

Sora felt the muscles holding his form up relax and he lifted his head up in relief at the acceptance of his apology. As he pretended to busy himself with pouring his cup of tea while Cloud sipped his drink, he cautiously disturbed that polite silence between them again.

"So which is it?"

"I'm sorry?" Cloud said.

"Which one do you like more?" Sora asked, gesturing towards the Cinderella. "Strawberry or pineapple?"

After a rather long hesitation which consisted of nothing but exchanging pointless glances, Cloud finally spoke in that same quiet, nonchalant tone, "… Strawberry."

Their gazes were still held on so _firmly_ after this utterance that it was somewhat obvious that the atmosphere between them thickened again, but at a different light. It was like they wanted nothing more but to stay like that in each other's company and ignore the rest of the moving world that surrounded them – from the frustrating demands of office paperwork to the rushing social meetings with chattering friends.

But then their gazes broke and once again, they were back in their individual businesses – Sora taking a sip of his sweetened tea and Cloud diverting his attention back onto his broadsheet.

Seconds … minutes passed as they stayed in their polite silence. Sora was pretending to study the scene outside the café window but nothing interesting was noted down and his eyes had taken on an annoying habit of straying away from the window to settle on–

The breast pocket of Cloud's shirt began to flash blue and before Sora wondered how the man's garment could have miniature lights installed in it, something vibrated from within the pocket and it was then that the brunet realised that Cloud's mobile phone was ringing.

Scratch that, it was merely vibrating continuously to indicate that someone was calling him. From this information, Sora's attention perked up. He was going to hear more of the entrancing quality of the blonde's voice.

However, Cloud merely ignored his phone.

More seconds passed as the blonde man opposite him let his phone continue vibrating in his breast pocket. Before Sora could make a decision on whether or not it was wise to verbally inform the man that someone was trying to call him (he was humbly concerned if the call was important), the device stopped its vibrating and lay quiet.

Sora released a heavy sigh and continued taking sips of his tea, his mind racing with many questions about the vibrating mobile phone in Cloud's breast pocket. Was Cloud merely refusing to answer the person who was calling him?

A few moments later, Cloud stirred in his seat, carefully _folding the top of the page_ of the broadsheet newspaper he was reading before closing the paper.

Sora blinked at the peculiar action. Who bookmarks their newspaper – let alone a _broadsheet_?

As he was left to muse upon this matter some more, he watched as Cloud cast a glance at his direction (in which Sora shamefully looked away) before he pulled out the still-flashing mobile phone buried within the depths of his breast pocket.

A sleek black and white flip phone was revealed and with one flick of his thumb, Cloud flipped the cover up and a small '_trring!'_ noise followed afterwards as the device indicated that it was ready to be used.

From the corner of his eye, Sora watched the calculating Cloud scrutinize the small screen of the phone, regularly taking more sips of his tea and refilling it once his cup sat empty.

The blonde frowned slightly at the number of missed calls he had and opened his voicemail box to find a number of voicemails waiting to be noticed. So, pressing on a button, he placed the phone to the base of his ear and listened to the demands, reminders and pointless greetings from the people he knew.

From across him, Sora still watched Cloud, silent as he was, as he sensibly listened to the muffled voices exuding out of the speaker. And this went on for another couple of minutes (and Sora was becoming worried that his tea was quickly running out) all before Cloud pulled the phone away from his ear and started fiddling with the keypad, his thumb swiftly jabbing this key and that with amazing speed.

It was after a small beep emitting from the phone and a brief blue flash that Sora realised that Cloud was sending a text message.

And this cycle, again, went on for several minutes.

From this point on, Sora was openly staring at Cloud as the man continued not to stir, bent over that small black device which kept beeping and flashing blue (indicating the arrival of a text message) and almost unconsciously tucking his hair behind his ear. It was not that Sora was in any way being rude, he just couldn't help noticing it… To him, it was awfully clear…

_Cloud doesn't call people, _he told himself with wonder. _He **texts** them…_

To him, this man was perhaps the most astonishing person he had ever encountered. There was just so many little things about Cloud had that made him such an interesting individual. And oh how he wondered what else was there behind the man who spoke so little?

He realised that he had been too careless with his staring because Cloud had stirred slightly from his reverie and slid his eyes up to meet his own. Now caught red-handed on his crime, Sora blushed and knowing that Cloud was watching that tinge of red spreading wildly across his face, he blushed even harder.

To his astonishment, the corner of Cloud's lips twitched upwards and he almost fell off his chair. Although it was very faint and very vague, this small action was enough to be classified as a small, no– _tiny_, amused smile.

Cloud – **smiling**? At _him_?

He couldn't understand how his already blushing cheeks could further intensify their colour than it already had now.

* * *

There was something – just something _addicting _about staring –no, _looking_ at Cloud.

He was forcefully telling himself to keep his gaze onto his empty cup where the small sediment of tea floated lazily at the base of the porcelain. Twice he found his gaze wandering off and he silently told himself off for this. After all, he didn't want to further embarrass himself in front of Cloud again. Cloud probably thought him to be an idiot anyway.

But as Sora heard the small exasperated sigh escape Cloud's lips, his eyes tore themselves away from his cup for a second and glimpsed at the preoccupied blonde man, who was still endorsed in his text marathon. A pair of earphone pieces had magically popped out of nowhere and one of the pair had been inserted into his ear, telling Sora that he was currently listening to the mp3 player built-in into the device.

He quickly averted his eyes back to their supposed position (in the inside of his cup) and pretended to take note of the swirling tea sediment as an attempt to distract his attention from the man sitting opposite him. Still, he told himself the quickest way to solving this was to quickly leave the café and meet Kairi later. At least that way he had other things to think about (like worrying if Kairi had plans of putting him in a turtle suit for the campaign) instead of trying to disturb more of Cloud's privacy with his pointless babbles about strawberries.

_There's still a little bit of unmixed sugar in here, _he told himself as he took note of the extra sugar crystals that had not yet properly dissolved in his tea. _Perhaps I should stir it again just to–_

He blinked when he found all the objects on the table (including Cloud's glass) gone, having been swept up onto a tray by a grinning Rikku, who was humming another song as she twittered away, and he was now left staring at the very, _very _**empty**surface of the table.

It was then when he realised that both he and Cloud remained motionless in their seats.

There was a horrible, stagnant air of waiting. A drifting ambience of expectancy wavered steadily, awaiting for the first signs of movement to break the stillness that descended upon them. But none of them made that first move at all. Rikku's act of taking away Sora's finished tea had been an obvious indication that the brunet's work here, at the café –at Cloud's table– was done.

And in spite of this, Sora found himself _not_ wanting to leave yet.

It was much too soon.

Finally, after what seemed to be almost a minute of stillness, there was movement as Sora reached into his bag to pull out various notebooks, scattering them across his side of the table. At once that motionless air snapped – and from the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Cloud's shoulders relax before the blonde resumed his maniacal text messaging, absent-mindedly tapping a finger against the surface of the table to the beat of the muffled rocky tune playing in his ear.

Half-listening to the mp3 track, Cloud took note that Sora flipped through his notebooks rather boisterously, causing the leaves to crumble slightly from his touch. Curiously, he peeked over his phone to glimpse this view and instantly, his eyes widened as he assimilated the sight of an _enormous _assortment of sticky notes (all in different sizes, shapes and colour) plastered all over the brunet's papers. Every single page of his notebook seemed to be covered with them.

From this distance, he could make out several of the notes scribbled across the various shaped memos. A green leaf-shaped note was scribbled with the words '_Read pages 143-147 in Green Textbook'. _A yellow pineapple had '_See NGeo channel 54, 2100 hours_' scrawled across it and a white sheep blared out the scribble '_Tell Kairi that Riku wants his shoes back'_. Realising that he was beginning to 'glimpse' a bit too long, he returned back to his phone before the other boy could begin to guess what he was doing.

Just as Cloud finished sending another text message, he could see from the corner of his eye that Sora had carefully reached into the depths of his open bag to extract a rather squashed pink marshmallow from a crumpled plastic packet before popping it into his mouth. There was a bulge in one of his cheeks indicating the location of said marshmallow and a silent message that the boy was keeping it there so it would slowly melt in his mouth.

_He's obsessed with anything sweet, this one. _

The blonde was obviously referring to the squashed marshmallow and the fact that the waffles had been sickeningly smothered with too much syrup.

Cloud snapped his phone shut (earning another _'trring!' _as the device indicated it was now locked) and slid it back into his breast pocket, deciding he had enough of text messaging. Now left with nothing to do, he merely reclined back to his seat with arms crossed and sat listening to the mp3 track playing in his ear.

Hearing the snap of the phone and the '_trring!'_ that came with it, Sora glanced up from his notes and watched as Cloud leaned back against his seat with crossed arms before his eyes fluttered shut. His head was slightly bent down, letting his blonde bangs sway about his face and obscuring the white square bandage on the man's temple. The earphone continued its muffled blaring (the drone of electric guitars) into his ear.

Suddenly he thought he felt a tug of familiarity.

"Hey, what are you –" he paused briefly when Cloud lifted his head up to look at him with deep blue eyes. " –Um, listening to?"

As those blue eyes continued gazing at him, to his utter surprise, Cloud picked up the spare earphone piece and held it out to him.

Sora flushed red at the unexpected act.

"Er, thanks," he mumbled, taking the earphone from Cloud and telling himself off for voicing such a ridiculous enquiry. Inserting it into his ear, he tried to ignore the look that Cloud was giving him and instead, focused his gaze on a random spot on the table.

His eyebrows furrowed slightly as the sound of the droning guitar playing in his ear. Then, the vocalist resumed his singing (the language was foreign, he noticed), his voice flat and monotonous.

_Wait a second_…

Liquorice … Tidus … microphone...

_Wait a second!_

His mind was suddenly filled with the image of Tidus singing.

_This is …!_

His voice flat and monotonous.

"This is…"

"_Chow Chow_," came Cloud's voice, breaking into his thoughts. "It's Korean – sang by a group called DeliSpice. A friend gave me this song."

"_Chow Chow_ …" Sora echoed, finally recognising how the song sounded so familiar. "I _know_ this song! Tidus sang this back at the arcade – when we were in the karaoke…"

His words trailed off as Sora's expression changed to that of horror. With wide eyes, he automatically recalled his very energetic swinging of that particular door onto the angry stranger standing behind it.

The stranger who was, at the moment, sitting just right opposite him, supporting the white plaster bandaged over his temple.

Without warning, he jerked his entire being back from the table with such force that both earphones tore away from the listeners' ears. Cloud startled at the sudden act and stared at a flustered Sora, who gripped the edges of the table with such force that his knuckles turned white.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was really an accident, I promise, I really am … but then again it kind of was my fault because I can't help it when I open doors and that time I wanted to tell Tidus not to get the chocolate smoothie – because I wanted a strawberry one since the chocolate ones are _horrible_ – and because of that, I was in a rush and I didn't notice anyone was behind that door and – and … oh god, I nearly killed you, didn't I? When I saw you on the floor, I thought you fell over but then I saw that bruise going pink, and then _red_, and then **_purple _**and I first thought your skin had this weird ability to change colour like a chameleon but… but _then_ I realised that I crashed my door right into you and I d-didn't know how to wake you up so I tried this… but… but then you _did _wake up and you looked really mad and I was kind of scared…wait, no, no, _no! _I was** really **scared and I thought you were going to shout at me but then you didn't say anything and I thought maybe it was because you were too mad to say anything– oh no, you're mad now aren't you? Oh god, I really screwed this up again, didn't I? I… Th-the reason why I came over here was to a-ap-apologise to you and because I'm here now and … so, um, I...I …"

A final inhalation of breath and then, "**I'M REALLY SORRY!**"

And with that, Sora's head dipped down into a firm bow, letting those brown strands to cover his features. From his seat, Cloud sat completely frozen with utter shock at the muddled outburst for apology and it took almost thirty whole seconds for him to assimilate all that information. Down to the last word.

There was a long pause before a breathless Sora hesitantly peered up from his bow, waiting for a response – _any _response – from the still stunned blonde opposite him.

"Don't…" came a rusty voice from Cloud's lips. He cleared his throat again and tried to ward off the shock that still lingered in his being. "Don't worry … about it."

At the sound of these words, Sora's face brightened up with relief and a grateful smile stretched across his lips. All before he gave another short polite bow.

"Thank you for accepting my apology," he said, his tone contented with breathless reprieve. "It means a lot to me."

Cloud maintained his gaze on Sora's bright eyes and a very small, fragile upward twitch of a smile formed in his lips as he murmured back, "No problem."

And they stayed like that, another moment of stillness, staring and silent wishing. Even as the environment that surrounded them buzzed with activity, they were in a silent, mutual world of their own. Sprawled across the table were the two earphone pieces, their wires tangled together as _'Chow Chow' _continued to blare out of its tiny speakers.

Like the whip of a crack, a new musical tune cut through the silence to shatter this moment. A whirl of electronic keyboards and then …

"_When there's trouble, you know who to call…_

"…_Teen Titans!"_

Something erupted into vibrating buzzes and Sora jumped in his seat, scrabbling into his pocket to pull out his silver mobile phone, plastered with small photo stickers, before pressing a button and holding the device to his ear.

At once, a loud and very cross female voice erupted into his ear, "SORA! Where on _earth _are you! I've been waiting ten minutes for you at the Leisure Centre. Selphie, Demyx and Roxas are already here! I hope that Riku isn't holding you up and –no, don't put that there, Demyx!– if he is, bring him over so I could speak to him about people having specific timed meetings. Never mind all that now, where exactly **are **you to be so late like this?"

"Hello Kairi," said Sora, glumly into the phone.

"Don't 'hello Kairi' me, Sora," the girl huffed. "Whatever it is you are doing now –I said _don't put _it there! Demyx, I swear if that turtle drops into that jug I will seriously kick you out of here and I don't care what Zexion will say –Sorry 'bout that. You need to get here in seven minutes – _seven minutes, _Sora. No questions, no protests. I had to ask my Gran to sew up a turtle costume and I want you to see it. We don't have much time borrowing this room so come over here quick! "

There was a click in the other end of the line and the phones disconnected.

With a sigh, Sora lowered the phone from his ear and slipped it back into his pocket. It was then when he realised that Cloud's eyes were still on him.

"Going now?" mumbled Cloud, his tone light and casual.

With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Sora grinned sheepishly and nodded, "Got a meeting to go to. Sorry about the … um," he paused when he realised that there was nothing to really apologise about. "…The, um, yeah."

Clearing his throat, he gathered up his notebooks and stuffed them into his bag, feeling quite awkward and low somehow.

_W-Wait … _

He hoisted up his bag quite slowly because his mind was racing, nagging him about something.

_I have to…_

And he hesitated by the table, not noticing that Cloud was staring quite intensely at the earphone pieces that still lay sprawled on the surface of the table, his jaw clenched tightly.

…_I have to** do** something._

Sora had a sudden notion and quickly unzipping his bag, he rummaged through one of the pockets in order to pull out –

A raspberry-red-coloured sticky note pad, brand new and unused, in the shape of a strawberry.

With a small blush in his cheeks, he held it out to Cloud with both hands.

"For you," was what he simply said.

Cloud stared up at the blushing Sora, and feeling warm around the cheeks himself, reached up to take the unanticipated gift.

And then their fingers touched.

A spark sizzled between their fingertips as they brushed against the others'. All before two pairs of blue eyes widened dramatically and then became fixed on each other in absolute, utter surprise.

And then –

A pause.

There came another moment of frozen stillness held by gazes of blue shades and the gentle grasp of fingers touching warm skin. And a faint sound of two heartbeats racing – frantically, excitedly **racing –** against time.

_Could this…_

Their breathing ceased.

_Could this be…_

A pair of unconscious fingers delicately curled over the other's.

…_Destiny?_

_Bump._

"Ah!"

"Whoops! Sorry!"

Just behind them, a twirling Rikku was passing with a tray in her hand and her shoulder had jostled against the small of Sora's back with enough force to jerk him out of his trance. His fingers slipped away from Cloud's and then they were back in the café, the many customers now leaving the tables with their possessions.

Sora suddenly realised that he had been holding his breath all this time.

Ignoring the warmth radiating from his face, he gave another quick bow to Cloud and finally turned away from the table as he joined the line of leaving customers who were making their way towards the door.

And as Cloud was left sitting in his chair, his table now feeling very empty and his hand holding the strawberry-shaped sticky pad, he couldn't help noticing as he watched Sora's figure disappear through the glass café door.

_His hair actually **bounces** when he walks. _

And he found this very amusing.

**_

* * *

_**

_**End (Chorus 2-repeat)**_

****

**

* * *

**

Notes:

It's true what Cloud just said at the end of this chapter. Ever notice it when you play KH2, you go into the main menu and up comes Sora and his group just aimlessly walking? Look carefully and you **will **notice it – Sora's hair realy _does _**bounce**!!

Anyway.

There are a few things I must mention about this chapter. Firstly, the _Cinderella _drink featured here **does **exist – invented by a co-worker of mine at a restaurant near the local Mall (so the idea doesn't belong to me, boo). I tried drinking it once and straightaway I decided that this little piece of work will be sampled by Cloud in this chapter. It took a while to come up with the content of this chappie and it's mostly on the two discovering each other's – what I'd like to call – "**little things**". For example, Sora has an obsession with sweet things and has a giant collection of sticky notes plastered all over his notebooks while Cloud bookmarks anything he reads (even newspapers) and has a habit of tucking his hair behind his ear.

The Le Blanc dress uniforms were a figment of my imagination, heavily based on the dress uniforms in the café featured in Tokyo Mew Mew. I needed a dress with a skirt so puffed up and stiff that even Rikku herself would swoon over it.

So, what have we found out here? That Cloud has the very song that Tidus sang back in the karaoke booth whose door crashed into Cloud? And I've noticed there were _so many_** frozen moments** where Cloud and Sora just sat still in their chairs! What have I done!

Next up: Leon giving Cloud a free massage? Kairi swooning over Korean dramas? Romantic little sayings, small elevator shafts, a count-down from five to one and 'My Girl' soundtrack songs as mobile ring tones? Just wait and watch as Destiny takes its toll in the next instalment of 'Chow Chow'!

**Questions? Comments? Review my good readers and I will love you forever! **

**-NoriKo-chan XD**


	4. Chorus 2: repeat 2X

A/N: Gasp! I'm back so early!! After the last chapter was put up, one night I typed up 3000 words of this chappie and continued the next morning with an extra 2000. Then I've added an extra scene with 3000 words … So it's _another _8000+ altogether, including the extra, extra, extra editing. I've probably scared most of my readers away with my long absence and my long chapters full of pointless **CxS sap**.

Kudos and cookies for my beloved reviewers who were lovely enough to comment on last chapter:

**The O.C. Addict**,** KawaiiTidaChocoboCloud**, **XxTypoMasterxX**, **Black-Dranzer-1119**,** Is-Simple**,** weirdette**,** suika's w.o.t.c.**,** katgirlofthenight**,** chibi-chibi-kun**,** Steel Heart --** sorry, I couldn't reply to your reviews. I'm dedicating this chappie to you all!

A giant thanks to **suika's wind of the celestial **for kindly reading and re-reading through this _terribly _long chapter. Thank you, child.

**Warnings: **I can say Chinese food, claustrophobia and pointless ramblings about Destiny. What in the world have I written?

**Disclaimer: **_Kingdom Hearts _(holiness), _My Girl _(terrific Korean drama full of doomed tangerines and crying bishonen), its awesome soundtrack songs (hums Lagu Sedih nu na nu naa nu…), _Chow Chow_ (the _song_, not this story), _Who Are You _(Korean movie in which the song, _Chow Chow, _was featured in), _CLUB UNDERWORLD _(Porno Graffitti), _Naluri Lelaki (_SamsonS) sadly belongs to other people. Specifically **very rich** people.

_

* * *

_

Chow Chow

* * *

_(Chorus 2 – repeat 2X)_

Leon leaned against the frame of the cubicle doorway; coolly regarding the office occupant slumped across his chair, his head bent down, chin pressed to his chest where arms lay neatly folded across the front of his coffee-coloured shirt, eyes shut and blonde bangs swaying slightly to the breeze from the air conditioner. Inserted into each ear was an earphone piece – its wires trailing down to connect to the base of a sleek black and white mobile phone lying on the desk – that blared out faint muffled tunes of guitar riffs and droning vocalists.

The man hanging by the door released a sigh before the corner of his lips twitched upwards into an evident smirk. Obviously, this was not the first time that Leon caught his co-worker sleeping at his desk during long working hours. For reasons unknown, Cloud turned out to be the only person in the entire Department who could actually hand in due reports on time. Perhaps it was because of his nature to stay focused on one thing as displayed in his habit of reading. Once Cloud delved into a task he was set, the blonde would stick to it until it lay crisp and utterly finished on the desk by the morning.

No wonder Auron praised him so much. Much to Cloud's distaste of being the centre of attention.

After perhaps a minute or two of deliberated gazing, Leon finally pulled himself up from his position against the door frame and strolled into the cool office cubicle, taking care not to let his footsteps tap too loudly against the wooden floor. At just a metre away from the blonde, he stopped and from his view, Leon could see the black and white mobile phone displaying the song track title rolling across the small cover screen informing him of the song that Cloud was unconsciously listening to in his ear:

_**DeliSpice – Chow Chow**_

Slowly, strong fingers reached over and touched the two points on the back of Cloud's exposed neck. And before long, those fingers moved rhythmically, making circling movements to loosen up the stiffened muscles. The smirk on Leon's face widened and he continued his aimless massaging, satisfied to hear a small grunt emerge from the back of the blonde's throat as a reaction to his performance.

A moment later, Cloud's eyes fluttered open to reveal dazed, groggy deep blue irises.

"Hhm…?"

Leon removed his fingers from the back of Cloud's neck and gestured a greeting. "Nice nap?" he asked brightly.

Cloud stared at him blankly in utter confusion before Leon decided that this was a good time to be helpful.

"You fell asleep," he informed, nudging his head to the direction of the computer monitor screen which – because its user had been inactive for a while – decided to display a rather flamboyant piece of screen saver in the form of colourful swimming fish and scuttling crabs. The brunet turned back to his blonde companion, adding in a fairly concerned tone, "And you shouldn't sleep like that, Cloud. You wake up and get a pretty stiff neck. Aerith's been complaining too, I've heard. Said you never sleep in your bed. Always a sofa, a chair or – the safest – a desk. And you always sleep the same way, huh? Your chin on your chest like that."

Again Cloud stared – or rather, _squinted _at him as he tried to absorb the sentences that Leon had conveniently laid out for him.

The tune playing in the baffled blonde's ears continued. Leon obligingly tugged off the earphones that were blocking his hearing.

"Okay?" the brunet asked.

A pause. And then –

"Hm."

A nod. That was the only answer Leon would get when he fired questions at a sleepy Cloud.

The brown-haired man leaned against Cloud's desk, gazing down at the still-dazed blonde who was, at the moment, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles in an effort to ward off his grogginess.

"There's a meeting tomorrow evening at Yuffie's and she's invited both of us."

A small frown crossed Cloud's face as he inwardly digested the words "Yuffie" and "meeting". Clearly, with those two articulations, Cloud had taken on a mode of slight suspicion upon the matter.

It was too bad that Leon noticed this too fast.

"Plus, Yuffie dropped in a line that it's a business meeting so Auron's coming too. So pray tell you get there too, Cloud."

A small sigh was released from Cloud's lips and he made another effort at rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes again, "Hm."

Leon's smirk returned, "I'll take that as a 'yes', right?"

_Rub, rub, rub._

"Hm."

"Wonderful."

"Hm."

"Want to go out for a bite?"

_Yawn._

"Hm."

"Alright."

The brunet pushed himself up from his slump against the desk and leaned over to securely grasp the blonde's elbow and pull him up to his feet. A bleary Cloud stumbled from the sudden rush and felt his elbow being tugged as Leon forcefully dragged him out of the office, not giving the blonde anytime to think up a protest.

* * *

"And then! Listen to this! And then she pretends to faint, right, and she's sprawled across the pavement with eyes closed. Dong-chan is embarrassed, not to mention _shocked_ at the accidental kiss they shared so he tries to leave her there on the ground. Just as he starts walking away, all these pedestrians come by and start commenting on him – saying, 'How could he leave his drunken girlfriend like that?' or something along those lines. While Yoo-rin peeks from her act to see Dong-chan so embarrassed, I was laughing so hard, I fell off my sofa!"

Sora jiggled the paper cup he was holding from side to side as he listened to the enthusiastic tone of the red-haired girl walking beside him. Kairi's bright red hair had grown longer since last month's and on that particular afternoon, she had tied it back into a low ponytail, letting a few long strands to sway freely against her slim shoulders. She was carrying a used shopping bag with one hand, containing what seemed to be a costume of some sort. It was a mixture of green and brown, skin and shell.

Yes, it was the infamous turtle costume that Kairi's grandmother had kindly sewn up for their campaign.

Sora was glancing at it now as Kairi rattled on about the latest episodes of _My Girl_, the Korean drama series she watched on satellite every Thursday night. Sora had only seen a brief scene of the aforementioned television series and he vaguely remembered one of the protagonists crying about a serious matter coming up. There had been a rather deep soundtrack song that was played when angsty scenes like so commenced – the tune starting with the rhythmic beating of drums before a flow of violin strings struck up, adding fresh intensity into the moment. He truthfully admitted that he liked the song a bit – but with college work and all, he just couldn't find the time to flip through satellite channels to watch lengthy Korean dramas. Besides, the apartment flat he and Riku shared didn't have satellite anyway.

"Kairi, can I ask you something?" Sora interrupted with a sheepish grin and Kairi snapped her attention onto him, her blue eyes widening.

"What is it? You don't want the soda?" she suggested, reaching out to pluck the paper cup from his hand. The cup was half-empty and ice cubes rattled when movement was made. Kairi braced in her steps, ready to toss the object into the nearest bin a few feet away.

"No, no, not the soda," Sora corrected, reaching over and snatching the drink back. In the process of doing so, he tripped over his laces and stumbled in his steps but was luckily saved when Kairi caught him by the arm. His drink, however, was less fortunate and it fell in an explosion of ice cubes and clear liquid puddles.

"Ew," Kairi commented with a wrinkled nose as she swiftly steered Sora away from the mess he had made on the shiny marble floors of the Mall towards another lane where numerous shops were crawling with eager groups of people looking to purchase items at a cheap price. Sora took a last glance at the poor mass that had once been his drink and sighed, "Kairi! We can't just leave it like that! The Mall cleaners are probably going to hate me for being so ignorant and just walking away from the accidents I've made!"

"That's just ridiculous," Kairi huffed, her eyes immediately fixing on a jewellery shop they were passing which bore a large yellow label blaring out the words: **SALE – 20 OFF ON ALL ITEMS**. "You just think about people too much, Sora. Sometimes it's best to let go, you know – ooh! Look at those earrings! They are _nice…_I might take a look at them later on – er, anyway, you can't go around with the thought that this person doesn't like you because of this. If they don't like you, _so what_? That's what you should be thinking."

Sora had to pause to actually contemplate on this piece of advice. Kairi had always been hard-headed and proud of herself. Her confidence was something that Sora admired greatly at times. Of course, he, like everyone else, could only handle a bit of Kairi to last a lifetime.

Take the ridiculous turtle suit for example.

Anyway, somehow a small part of him agreed to what Kairi had said. He was simply too self-conscious about what other people thought about him. It often got him in bad situations at times. It wasn't really his fault, exactly. Sora just couldn't stand the thought that his being disliked by a person he knew. He wanted to settle peace between them so that the hostility was lowered – if not taken down altogether. And with that thought, he was able to sleep properly at night, happily smiling to the fact that he had gained yet another new friend.

After all, that was how he and Riku had grown so close in the period of a few months.

And it was also how he … how he and Cloud become acquainted.

Cloud…

"Kairi, can I ask you another thing?"

"About your self-consciousness?" Kairi sighed as she switched arms with the shopping bag she carried before flicking a stray strand of red hair away from her pretty face. "I'll give you tips on how you can get over your–"

"No, no, not that," Sora rolled his eyes, knowing Kairi's lack of patience for questions and her swift jumping into random conclusions. "Have you heard of a music band called Deliri-Ice?"

Kairi turned away from examining a designer handbag displayed on a shop window and blinked at the mention of the name, "Come again?"

"Deri –urm, DeleRice?"

"Who's that?"

"Er," Sora scratched the back of his neck, unsure if he was going to get the answer he expected. He raked through his brains for the vague information about the band that sung the song in the karaoke booth and stammered out quite uneasily, "Th-they're Korean. They sang this song … urm, I think it's called …"

Kairi's eyes continued to widen with expectancy as Sora squinted even more to remember the song's name.

_**Wait a second …**_

He could still hazily remember how the song sounded like though. He remembered staring at a random spot on the café table when Cloud handed him one of his earphone pieces. He remembered Cloud's fingers, warm and delicate to the touch, curling unconsciously over his own.

_**This is…**_

"_Chow Chow,"_ Sora finally answered, his thoughts faraway. "Sung by a group called DeliSpice."

"Oh!" Kairi's eyes widened even more with recognition as her lips formed into a perfectly round 'O'. "_Chow Chow_! Yes, I know that song. It's one of the soundtrack songs of this Korean movie called _Who Are You_. I'm sorry to say that I don't know much about it though. I heard that this particular song was the band's first debut success and their first album, in which the song was featured in, was sold out in every music store – which reminds me I need to go and buy that new CHEMISTRY CD single at Disco Leez later on – But never mind that, it's extremely difficult to hunt down for that album as they say. Do you know there are only _four _lines in the _entire _song? Let's see – I call them a Chorus 1 and a Chorus 2 repeating again and again and then an instrumental Interlude in the middle before the two Choruses repeat again for the final touch. In my opinion, _Chow Chow _seems a little drone-y for my taste…" her voice trailed off as she cast suspicious eyes onto him. "Why do you ask?" she added with a coat of interest in her voice.

Sora thought of Cloud and as realisation took over, he frantically waved his arms in an attempt to ward Kairi off suspicions, "Just asking! No fret! Tidus was singing that song at the arcade last week and I thought it sounded kind of cool, that's all."

Fortunately, Kairi decided that the answer was good enough for her because she let the matter drop by resuming back to the topic that had started the whole charade.

"Do you _know _that there's this episode in _My Girl _where there's this saying that if you count from five to one, the person you've been thinking about will appear before you? Well, this happened when Yoo-rin…"

* * *

Cloud's eye, now void of any traces of sleep, twitched irritably.

The smart clacking sounds of porcelain tapping into each other filled the air around them. Steam rose from the small, round, bamboo containers that held the small bits of curious-looking blobs of edible, colourful food. Chopsticks clapped sharply in the air as they enclosed around the piece of cuisine, ready to be manoeuvred into waiting, hungry mouths.

He was in a Chinese restaurant at the Mall –

And he was eating Dim Sum.

Leon was happily eating away his portions, the colourful blobs of prawn, chicken and vegetables promptly dwindled from the bamboo container that sat on the surface of the table before him. Cloud noticed that the brunet was very good at handling chopsticks. But then so did everyone else in the restaurant.

Or then again, maybe it was because Cloud didn't know _how _to eat food with **goddamn****chopsticks**.

His fingers slipped from the grip on the two sticks and they clattered against his plate with a loud clang. However, he was lucky enough not to attract so much attention for the noise was instantly swallowed by the buzzing sound of many chattering tongues.

It was quite crowded today.

"Having trouble?" Leon asked as he paused to look at his frowning, blonde co-worker sitting opposite, glaring coldly at the chopsticks that refused to cooperate with him.

Cloud shifted his gaze from the fallen chopsticks to Leon with a message that told him that the blonde was not happy with their current situation. This was perhaps one of the rare times when Leon convinced him to eat in an environment that did not include his computer screen or his paper-strewn desk as the entertaining view of his meal. But nonetheless, he was downright_ furious_ that the brunet had taken advantage of his sleepy state and dragged him out of the office. It was quite obvious that he did not want to be here. **At all.**

Curse you, Leon.

"Want me to show you how?" Leon offered and instead of displaying the methods on how one should properly hold and use chopsticks, Leon picked up one of the pieces of Dim Sum on Cloud's plate and held it up to the blonde's mouth with the air of a mother feeding her child.

Cloud flushed red.

…And a sudden image of a fork stabbing into a piece of syrup-smothered waffle was conjured in his mind. A pair of sky blue eyes looked up into his own as the forkful of waffle was held up in offer.

"_**Would you like some?"**_

He remembered the string of gooey syrup breaking off from the waffle and landing messily onto the table…

The blob of white and red that was currently held up to his face jiggled from side to side.

Cloud snapped out of his reverie.

There was a furrow of eyebrows into a slight frown and he was considering whether or not he should violently lash the offered food away.

But instead, the Dim Sum was politely pushed away with a single finger.

Cloud shook his head with an air of absolute rejection.

Leon raised an eyebrow at the colour that rose in Cloud's cheeks and decided not to comment on it. Instead, he withdrew his hand and popped the blonde's rejected Dim Sum into his own mouth.

"Suit yourself."

There was a small smirk lingering within the confines of Leon's face as he said it.

In Cloud's mind, the forkful of waffle was pulled back and inserted into a pair of grinning lips.

Cloud shook his head a little and picked up his chopsticks, gripping them clumsily with his hand and proceeding to poke the lump of white that was dotted with tiny orange beads.

_What exactly …is this?_

Leon regarded his bewildered expression from over his plate and suggested helpfully, "Those orange things … they're fish eggs."

The chopsticks fell from the blonde's fingers and landed onto his plate with a crash.

"Yeah… fish eggs," Leon repeated with confirmation, knowing that Cloud rarely ate anything that was still raw and uncooked.

There was a scraping of a chair across the floor as Cloud got up from his seat and disappeared from view behind a marble pillar. A few seconds later, he returned with silver cutlery and a new plate holding a couple of Spring Rolls and some Popia Prawns.

Leon watched as the blonde settled into his seat and picked up his knife and fork. He then started to cut one of the Popia Prawns in hope that he could eat it quickly and leave the vicinity as soon as possible.

The Popia snapped and he was left staring at the scattered pieces with wide, confused eyes.

Leon released a sigh.

"You eat it with your _hands_," he advised. "Or you can use chopsticks to pick it up. Knives and forks are not needed for foodstuffs like this."

Cloud gave an exasperated huff and placed his cutlery aside.

Both Spring Rolls and Popia turned out to be sickeningly oily when he picked them up with his fingers. He inwardly cursed the careless chef who fried these foods as he loudly crunched on them, earning raised-eyebrow looks from his companion who sat opposite and who was, at the moment, lifting his porcelain cup up to take a careful sip of aroma-scented Jasmine tea.

_Tea …_

A teapot came up in Cloud's mind, its lid removed to allow the sprinkling of three sugar sachets to commence. A spoon was inserted inside to swirl the pot's contents around. A pair of sky blue eyes eagerly peered into the pot to take note of the sugar crystals dissolving in the bronze-coloured liquid. The same eyes shifted away and locked on his …

_**He likes to watch the sugar swirl in his tea.**_

His plate lay empty before him, blotted with beads of leftover oil and, looking at his stained fingers, Cloud reached into his bag to pull out his packet of baby wipes, imprinted with zoo animals in tutu skirts.

Leon chose not to comment as he watched the scene that was taking place before him.

An artificial scent of strawberries washed over Cloud's nose as the wet tissue was rubbed all over his hands.

"_**You like strawberries, don't you?"**_

Sky blue eyes had been filled with excited curiosity as those words were said.

Cloud unconsciously sighed at the memory.

"Hey."

Leon looked up in surprise. Did Cloud just …speak?

"Which do you like more? Strawberry… or pineapple?"

Leon…could only stare.

…_WHAT?_

There was a long, pregnant pause. The brunet froze, simply too taken aback at what he had just heard.

Did Cloud just – _ask him a question?!_

"P-Pineapple," Leon answered dumbly, for he was unable to ward off the astonishment that took over him. "I'm allergic to strawberries."

"Hmp." A snort of approval to the answer.

The blonde was still looking at him, a straight, impassive expression melded in his features. Yet in his eyes, somewhere deep, Leon could recognize the surfacing of a hue of sincerity – the element of emphasis to his next words:

"Thanks … for the Dim Sum."

A moment's pause –

And then Leon smiled.

* * *

Sora puffed up his cheeks in irritation and Kairi gave him a look.

"But I don't like elevators."

"Well, you have to manage," Kairi cut in as she placed her hands onto her hips. "It's time you learn to ride in an elevator shaft on your own. Seriously Sora, this ridiculous fear of yours has got to stop. I'm disappointed that Riku isn't doing much help shaping you up either – what with his own, hectic studying and useless moping and all. Besides, I have an appointment at the salon with Selphie on this floor in a few minutes…" the red-haired girl paused when she spotted the uneasy look on Sora's face as the brunet stared at the shiny elevator doors that had yet to open.

Kairi let out an exasperated noise and shoved the small of Sora's back with her hand. "You'll be _fine_! Relax! Just hold your breath and count the seconds away. It'll be over in no time. Here–" She reached into her bag and pulled out a bag of cookies. The wonderful waft of oven-fresh, freshly-baked goodness reached into Sora's nostrils. His stomach grumbled in response.

Honestly, Kairi just spoiled him senseless sometimes. If not, **all the time**.

Unable to contain his hunger, he made a grab for the packet but Kairi jerked it out of reach. "Ne-uh. I'll only give it to you if you _promise_ not to get off this elevator shaft until you reach the ground floor, understand?"

"Kai–"

"Understand?" came her voice again, much more sternly this time. The bag of cookies shook as Kairi jiggled it from side to side.

"Alright, alright," Sora grumbled, snatching the bag from the girl's hand and turning towards the elevator doors. He felt her slip the shopping bag containing the turtle suit into his hand, "Keep this for a while. Bring it to tomorrow's meeting. We're going to test it out."

Sora groaned at the fate that was bestowed upon him.

There was a sharp _'ting!_' as the elevator doors slid open to reveal a small cramped-looking compartment shaft lit in a dim, golden light. Posters of restaurants and shops advertising their promotions were plastered on the sides of the shaft, giving its rider something to look at as they travelled through the shopping Mall's floors. An uneasy Sora peered into the shaft, his grip upon the handles of the shopping bag he carried tight, paling the skin of his knuckles. In his other hand, the bag of cookies was held protectively against his chest and he could feel his heart give a throb of anxiety.

Sora hated elevator shafts.

"_Off _you go!"

He felt two hands push him into the confined compartment and he cried out as he stumbled inside. Whipping around to deliver a protesting pout to the red-haired girl smiling on the floor's landing, Kairi simply smiled as she gave a mocking wave at his direction.

"Kairi…!"

"Now remember!" she said with a brandished finger. "Don't worry. If you feel nauseated just take deep breaths to stay calm. Don't panic and try not to pass out. If you do, count from five to one to cool yourself down. And keep telling yourself that you'll be fine. There's a low chance that the cables holding the shaft would snap anyway…"

Sora felt a horrifying twinge in his stomach and the image of him screaming hysterically as the elevator shaft he was in dreadfully plunged towards the ground formed in his mind. Out of instinct, he bolted from his spot and made for the exit but Kairi anticipated this, immediately stopping him from escaping by grabbing him by the shoulders and keeping him in her grasp. She ignored the muddled squeaks that came out of his mouth as she hastily dragged him back into the shaft.

"But Kai…please don't let me do this. I really don't like it at all… please let me use the stairs or the escalators…just not this…not this…"

"Oh _quit_ being a scaredy cat. Just because you were stuck in a moving elevator shaft with jammed doors for four hours straight back in second grade, it doesn't mean you will be again. Besides, it's only five floors. And I'll stay right here to check that you've gone all the way down."

She gestured upwards where a set of digits signifying the floor numbers ran across the strip above the elevator doors. The number '5' was glowing, indicating that the shaft was on their floor, waiting to be filled with occupants.

Sora stopped struggling in her grasp and muttered quite prudishly, "It was **five**hours straight. _And_ I was on my own that time."

"Well, you should grow up," Kairi argued, letting go and stepping out of the shaft. "Trust me, you'll be _fine_."

She reached over to give his hand a reassuring squeeze, all before letting go to punch a button on the elevator shaft wall.

The button 'G' glowed red.

"Take care now," were her last words as her form vanished from behind the sliding elevator doors. Sora could feel his entire being stiffening as the shaft gave a lurch and began to descend from the floor.

Instantly, he was overcome with the sensation of claustrophobic stuffiness. To be honest, Sora could stand confined, small spaces like karaoke booths. He just didn't like them when they could _move_ up and down.

He held out a shaky hand to touch the vibrating walls of the shaft in an effort to steady his wavering balance. His breathing quickened just as his vision began swimming out of focus. _No_! He scolded himself. _Keep awake! Keep awake! Remember what Kairi had said!_

"_**If you feel nauseated just take deep breaths to stay calm."**_

Sora breathed in and out, deep and slow, and felt his form relax a little. His vision swam back into focus. He could see his reflection on the surface of the elevator doors, his face drained of colour.

"_**Don't panic and try not to pass out. If you do, count from five to one to cool yourself down."**_

Sora looked up at the black strip above the shaft doors that told him his progress through the different floors. Right now, he was passing the third floor. Good grief, why was this journey down taking so _long_?

"F-Five."

His voice escaped his throat and was instantly devoured by the still air in the shaft. It felt awfully stuffy in here. He bent his head down and shut his eyes tightly in an effort to fight off the nausea that was taking over him.

"Four."

The light illuminating the floor numbers slowly changed from '3' to '2' as he continued to descend.

"Three."

"**Chow Chow**_**…it's Korean – sang by a group called DeliSpice. A friend gave me this song."**_

"Two."

"…_**there's this saying that if you count from five to–"**_

"One."

The shaft shuddered into a halt as the 'G' glowed brightly above the doors.

"…_**the person you've been thinking about…" **_

Then came the sound of a _'ting!'_ and – just as the shaft doors slid open quite slowly, there was a sound of a song playing somewhere outside and he recognized the rhythmic beating of introductory drums – it was the soundtrack song from _My Girl_ and he looked up in alarm and recognition and –

"…_**will appear before you."**_

There, standing in front of him, waiting to get into the elevator shaft, was Cloud.

It was Cloud in his usual business shirt, today coffee-coloured, with one hand wedged into the pocket of his black pants. It was Cloud whose blonde bangs fluttered slightly about his face from the breeze conjured up from the opening of elevator doors. It was Cloud whose blue eyes – whose deep blue eyes – widened in absolute surprise as they clashed with disbelieved sky blue ones.

"_**Do you think that the opening of that **_**particular**_** door could be a sign to the unravelling of an upcoming change of **_**unusual**_** events? A door of **_**destiny?**_**"**_

The song playing in the backdrop of this remarkable scene continued as the flow of violin strings struck up, adding fresh, soaring intensity into the moment. There was the mutual holding of two distinct breaths. It felt like a Drama series. It was too coincidental … it was too unreal…

It was like destiny.

A random passer-by shuffled past them, pulling out a silver mobile phone and flipping it open, instantly ceasing the _My Girl _song that was playing, "Hello?"

The moment suddenly broke and Sora blinked stupidly at Cloud before he shook himself off that stupor with a barely audible, breathless whisper of greeting:

"Hi."

In response, Cloud returned him that vague twitch of a smile, earning Sora a grand blush of embarrassment because he realised that he sounded like a girl who was experiencing love at first sight.

Good grief.

He suddenly remembered where he was when the elevator doors, after waiting for any boarding or dismounting of its passengers, decided to close. Sora scampered from his spot and squeezed through the shrinking gap, feeling his feet land on solid ground and he stopped himself from kissing it gratefully because Cloud was watching.

Speaking of Cloud …

The brunet jumped back a metre or two, realising that the proximity between his and Cloud's bodies had been intrudingly close. As the radiating warmth that exceeded from Cloud's body disappeared from his side, Sora almost felt disappointed at the loss and felt tempted to regain it back. But he felt himself hesitating when he realised what he had been thinking.

_Had he just intended to get physically __**closer**__ to Cloud? _

He blushed again for these thoughts and tried to think up an ice-breaker to induce a small conversation between them.

"From work?" Sora blabbered out, fighting off the remains of the blush that was painted across his face, exposed for all to see.

Cloud looked at him – or rather scrutinizedhim for a moment (Sora was only a head shorter than him) before replying in his usual quiet, nonchalant tone, "Lunch."

"Oh?" Sora moved on, not wanting their attempt at a conversation to stop at any awkward moments. "What did you eat?"

"Dim Sum."

"Really? Was it nice?"

"No."

"Oh, alright… why?"

"I don't like Dim Sum."

A surprised look. "Hm? Seriously?"

"Yeah."

Sora raised his eyebrow, feeling that their conversation was beginning to flow much more smoothly than last time. "Yet, you agree to eat it even though you don't like it?"

"My colleague dragged me there on purpose."

Sora smiled a little, knowing the feeling whenever he was with Kairi. "So where is your friend now?"

"He had to go back to the office. I have an hour of my break to kill in the meantime."

"I see…so you're on your own, I guess."

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"And you? Don't like elevators?"

Sora felt the blush return to his cheeks. "Was it …um, _that _obvious?"

"You could say that."

"Heh. I don't really …urm, _like _elevators. Far too cramped in there."

"Claustrophobic, are you?"

"Only when it comes to small spaces that move."

"Oh… bad experience?"

"Yeah. Bad experience."

"Yet, you got off one just now – _and_ from the fifth floor."

Sora was too flustered to notice that Cloud's voice had a tinge of mockery laced in it.

"That's because Kairi forced me into it!"

"And you didn't oppose?"

Sora fell silent, suddenly apprehending the situation. Why hadn't he protested more severely? Surely, Kairi knew her limits when it came to his decisions. He needn't to go on the elevators if he really didn't want to.

And…and yet…

_If it weren't for Kairi, this wouldn't have happened… He and Cloud wouldn't have –_

"I… I'm sorta glad I didn't."

This time, Cloud fell silent as he felt the stroke of realisation when he understood the implication of those words.

_If it weren't for Leon, this wouldn't have happened…They wouldn't have met again like this…_

"Me too."

"Heh. I guess we're here because we've done the things we don't want to, eh?"

"I suppose."

And they fell into a sudden silence that stretched awkwardly as they hung about the elevator doors, the illuminating 'G' above their heads indicating that the shaft was on their floor, waiting for someone to board it. Curious shoppers passed them with a regarding eye before hurrying away and putting the thought out of mind.

The silence was quickly becoming uncomfortable again.

Sora realised the danger of their position and shot off the first thing that came to his head, "Do you … ah, have any plans at the moment?"

He paused when he saw the curious look that Cloud was giving him and then he realised how his question must have sounded.

"N-not that I'm implying anything, I mean, from where you're going then it _must_ be obvious – that you have plans… but then, you could be going down to the basement to get your car and drive back to the office – but then again, _that_ can't be right since you said so yourself that you have an hour of free time to kill so maybe it could be that you're about to take your car and drive somewhere _else _because the Mall can't be the only place that you could wait and pass the time at … but then–"

Sora stopped when he realised he was babbling again and held up a hand to cover his mouth. "Ah! I'm ranting again, aren't I? I-I'm so sorry!"

"S'alright…really."

A sheepish laugh. "Heh. Thanks."

And then came another pause between them. The two bodies lingered shyly by the doors of the elevator, waiting for someone to make the first move. They were waiting for a small announcement – a small _indication_ – that would decide whether or not they should part ways – like any other chance encounter between strangers.

They were waiting for an excuse to stay together just a little longer.

Cloud was the one who broke their silence.

"I don't have any plans at the moment."

Sora felt his heart soar a little. It was awkward. "Really? Neither do I."

Silence again.

"Do you …"

It was Sora this time. Cloud regarded him with expectant, deep blue eyes.

"Do you want to walk with me?"

* * *

A strand of blonde hair was neatly tucked behind an ear.

"Okay to ask?"

A blinking of sky blue eyes in comprehension, "Of course."

Cloud shifted his gaze back down onto his loafers as they aimlessly walked through the marble-tiled floors of the Mall floor. Sora noted down the fact that Cloud walked with his head bent down, his gaze fixed on the floor and one hand carelessly buried into the pocket of his trousers. They were of a polite, comfortable distance to each other, not too far away and not too close either.

"The teapot," Cloud murmured out as they dodged past a group of giggling girls who supported mobile phones and shopping bags in their manicured hands. Sora's eyes widened a little as he assimilated the word in his head but failed to comprehend.

"I'm sorry?"

"At the café. The sugar in the teapot," hinted the blonde helpfully, his eyes still averted away from the sky blue ones that studied every wrinkle that formed in his expression.

Instantly, the brunet's eyes widened even more with understanding.

"Oh! That!" he laughed sheepishly before coughing into his hand to hide the small blush that was threatening to blemish his face. "I know people find it weird – but to me, it makes sense. Why bother to sweeten your cup of tea when you can just sweeten the entire _teapot_? Everytime you refill your cup, you have to add more sugar and it's tiring. So! To make things easier, add the sugar into the supply in advance! See where I'm going?"

From his view, Sora saw the corner of Cloud's lips twitching upwards.

"You're right. That actually makes sense."

"You think it _does_?" exclaimed the brunet with a grin. "Both Kairi and Riku think the sugar in the teapot is the most ridiculous thing I do… but then, _that_'s not right because Kairi thinks my fear of riding _any_ compartments that move is ridiculous …so the teapot thing can't be the _most_… but then Riku _also _says that he hates it when I get up from my bed and sleep-walk into his room so…"

He noticed that Cloud had lifted his gaze up from his shoes and was regarding him with eyes hued with amusement.

"Oh darn – I'm… heh, I'm blabbing again –"

"No worries," came the murmured reply as they strolled past an aquarium shop with windows displaying an array of colourful fish and Sora suddenly halted in his steps, causing Cloud to stop as well.

They were standing in front of a large music store whose very ground pulsed to the beat of the music playing out of the giant speakers. Flashing lights lit up the interior with vibrant, colourful glows. Customers walked around the various shelves, some standing back to study the selling titles while others reached over to pick a random CD or DVD up and dump it into a black shopping basket they carried. Overhead, large round letters illuminated out the store's name in bright neon colours:

DISCO LEEZ.

Kairi's voice suddenly echoed in his mind:

"_**Chow Chow**_**! Yes, I know that song…** **I heard that this particular song was the band's first debut success and their first album, in which the song was featured in, was sold out in every music store…"**

Sora felt a tug in his chest as he continued staring into the interior of the store and he remembered the droning quality of that song and the earphone pieces that he and Cloud shared.

_I… I __**want**__ to …_

He found himself holding back, surprised at the sudden decision that he had unconsciously made. He felt the tendency to enter the music store's vicinity and expect to see the DeliSpice CD sitting there, waiting for him to buy it.

_Wait…wait a second…_

What was it about '_Chow Chow' _that bloomed this sudden seed of determination to find the song? Why did he want to listen to it again? Why was there a strange feeling deep inside, telling him that the song somehow held a sense of value? Why was his senses telling him that he had to _seize_ it –that he had to _grab_ it – before his chance flew away?

_What was … what was '__**it**__'? _

_What on earth was he _actually_ looking for?_

**What…?**

"You want to…?" Cloud's voice interrupted his train of thought and Sora jerked out of his trance.

"Y-Yeah," he cut in uneasily, knowing what Cloud was about to say as indicated from the way Cloud's gaze kept shifting from him to the store. "Um… you don't …?"

"No, no," Cloud answered before Sora could finish his sentence. "No, I don't mind. Shall we…?"

"Right," Sora nodded and he led them both into the store, stepping onto the shafts of multicoloured lights that washed onto the floor. Porno Graffitti's 'CLUB UNDERWORLD' flowed out of the overhead speakers and drowned their hearing as both Sora and Cloud let their beings manoeuvre through the shelves of CDs, DVDs, video games and even books.

Sora's eyes shifted everywhere, taking in the sight of shiny CD covers and the names attached to them as his mind repeated the particular word like a mantra:

_DeliSpice… DeliSpice…DeliSpi–_

_Bump!_

"Whoa, whoa!"

Sora stumbled back and found himself facing one of the store's sales assistants – a rather tall individual wearing black and supporting a wild crest of bright, spiky red hair and glinting emerald eyes.

A pair of lips curled into a smirk as the nametag pinned to the individual's shirt flashed, flaunting the name printed on the plastic surface: AXEL.

It was then when Sora realised Cloud was nowhere in sight. The blonde must have wandered off somewhere. With rolled eyes, the brunet sighed. Here we go.

"So-ra! How's it going, eh? Roxy's not coming to piano lessons this week?"

Axel scrutinized him on the spot as he enunciated those words. Sora noticed that the red-head carried with him a stack of CDs and a marker pen. He must have been busy labelling prices before Sora had regrettably bumped into him.

"Roxas caught a cold two days before. Maybe next week – why don't you call him then?"

"Would've," snorted Axel as he adjusted the CDs in his arm. "…If the little bugger just gave me his phone number. Hard to crack, ain't he? Too busy ogling his fishes all day. I swear, one of these days, he'll probably be sending out invitations of his upcoming wedding to one of those ugly parrot fishes he's obsessed with…what's its name…Lucy or _Lola_…something like that…"

"It's _Lettuce_."

"**Lettuce**?" Axel echoed, scratching his bright red spikes with the hand he held his marker pen. "Who the hell names their fish '_Lettuce'_?"

Sora crossed his arms as his gaze lifted upwards towards the ceiling with an air of thoughtfulness, "Roxas prefers names which are said to be exotic and unexpected."

"So he honourably prefers christening his fish with names of vegetables?"

"Actually, he named his parrot fishes after the five characters of _Tokyo Mew Mew_."

"_Tokyo Mew_– **what**?"

Sora felt his form relax a little. Just a few weeks recently, his quiet cousin, Roxas, had stumbled into Axel, who was Riku's former high school classmate, one Thursday afternoon after his weekly piano lessons. And after their unusual encounter (Sora heard it had something to do with sea-salt ice-cream sticks), all Axel talked about was Roxas, Roxas, Roxas.

Sora sighed again.

"Look, since you're working here and all – why don't you help me find this CD I'm looking for?"

* * *

The World Music section was a small, silent area situated downstairs, where the vicinity was usually secluded of customers who were much more interested in the selection displayed upstairs. He found Cloud at one of the shelves, pouring over the song titles of a random CD. When Sora stepped closer into the almost deserted section, the blonde finally looked up.

"There you are," the brunet greeted, shattering the heavy silence of the room with his voice, before Cloud return to him a responding 'hmm'.

Sora turned to the shelf displaying the selection of CDs and began browsing through the titles. The collection was assembled according to the artist name and it mixed all Japanese, Korean, Chinese and even Indonesian artists together. Sora scrutinized a particular CD whose cover included a figure of a woman with folded wings amongst a white background. The words on the cover spelt out: SAMSONS followed by the album title 'Naluri Lelaki' below it.

As Sora continued his searching, he became aware that a warm presence had appeared somewhere by his side. It was then when he realised that he had unconsciously drifted closer to Cloud.

He found the warmth radiating from the blonde somehow enticing, almost beckoning him to draw even closer. But again he held himself back, thinking it would indeed seem rather rude to intrude into another person's personal space just because of one's irrational inclinations.

He shifted in his stance, his consciousness still fixed on his inward debate, all before his eye caught the CD that Cloud was holding up. With squinted eyes, he was able to make out the words…

D-De-

Cautiously, he took a tiny step closer to Cloud and felt the ridiculous tendency to go all the way overwhelm him. He gingerly bit his lip to restrain the feeling and squinted his eyes even more.

Deli…Spice…

DeliSpice!

"Ah!"

Cloud looked up in surprise at the utterance that his companion had made and caught the look of excitement that danced across the brunet's façade. The brown-haired boy had somehow ended up standing several inches away from his elbow.

"Th-That CD!" Sora exclaimed, unable to contain his exhilaration at the discovery. "M-May I?"

Unmoving, Cloud merely maintained his gaze onto the brunet, his eyes carefully examining the expression on the other's face and deciding that it resembled the same one that the brunet formed when he watched the sugar crystals dissolve in his tea.

"This is their fifth album, _Espresso_," Cloud informed the other quietly. "You can't find the first album here, unfortunately."

Sora felt his heart sink a little as he stared at the CD that Cloud held. The words 'DELISPICE' followed by the album name, _Espresso, _flashed back at him from behind the CD's plastic cover. He sighed exasperatedly at the deception before his shoulders sagged in setback, his gaze falling downwards.

_So much for trying. _

Something glinted in the light and Sora lifted his head up and blinked when Cloud held out the CD to him with a very small, reassuring smile plastered on his face.

"But at least it's _something_ …right?"

There was a tint of warmth in the blonde's voice when he said those words.

And Sora just stood there, staring at the CD under the shaft of gold and white light with Cloud there with him and somehow, that same feeling of excitement at the thought of gaining what he felt he was looking for returned. It was a somewhat nice, triumphant feeling, coupled with that inviting warmth of having Cloud's presence nearby.

Sora reached out to take the CD and his fingers touched the plastic cover.

Suddenly, they both froze.

And their hands remained on either ends of the CD case, unable to complete the exchange, as two pairs of eyes locked on one another and their minds raced as one.

_Wh-why does it–_

It was _then _when they both realised that they were very much **alone**. Together.

Cloud cleared his throat uncomfortably.

Sora shifted slightly in his stance.

–_feel so __**right**__…_

It was merely a sudden notion of awareness that hit them both like a fork of lightning the moment Sora's fingers touched the CD case. An overwhelming tension was building up between them as the heavy, muffled silence stretched on alongside the ticking seconds.

…_when we're _together...?

Sora's fingers unconsciously loosened and the CD suddenly slipped from their grasp, startling them out of their trance. Cloud caught it before it hit the floor.

Sora was blushing hard when the blonde handed him the CD.

"So you …ah, going to buy that?" Cloud asked, trying not to notice the red tinge that was wonderfully painted across the brunet's face.

"Y-Yeah… " Sora replied, looking everywhere else but at Cloud before clearing his throat for a much bolder response. "Yeah, I'm going to buy this."

****

**_

* * *

_**

_End (Chorus 2-repeat 2X)_

* * *

Notes about the chapter:

1) Kairi's commentary about the song '_Chow Chow' _is based on my vague knowledge of the song itself. Initially, I got the song from a CD my sister's friend burned for her (the burned CD was the OST from the Japanese movie, _All About Lily Chou Chou_ and '_Chow Chow' _was accidentally inserted in). Plus, noticed how this story's chapters are arranged? Kairi says "…a Chorus 1 and a Chorus 2 repeating again and again and then an instrumental Interlude in the middle before the two Choruses repeat again for the final touch." Yes, the chapter titles describe the entire song. And the 'Choruses' are not really Choruses. They are merely '_lines_'. I did not know that until now – so please excuse.

2) **Popia Prawns**, as mentioned in the Dim Sum scene, is basically a pastry like a spring roll with the exception that it is shaped like a folding fan. I don't really know what its real name is but in my language, it is known as the 'popia'. Because of its fan-like shape, it is impossible for one to try to eat it with cutlery. I just needed something which required Cloud to eat using his hands. Anyone know what the real name for **Popia Prawns**, please don't hesitate to mention it to me. Plus – it's funny, eh? That Cloud can't use chopsticks. And Leon is a bad flirt.

3) I needed a good enough reason for the Sora/Cloud elevator-door-encounter scene (i.e. "…if you count from five to one…" etc.) to happen. This part was based on an actual scene in the Korean drama series, _My Girl_ (in which I own no rights to). Why? Because I needed to put repeated ramblings about destiny inside and this scene is a must. So how do I put it? By making Sora fear elevators! Like it was mentioned, Sora does not like any small compartments that can move – meaning he's also scared of riding Ferris wheels and simulators!

4) Noticed how Sora and Cloud's conversation starts? From one-word utterances to full sentences?

5) What do _you _think about the sugar in the teapot thing? Makes sense? Try it out once in a while and see if Sora's words are true!

6) The music store, Disco Leez, was slightly based on the HMV store in Tottenham Court Rd, London. And Axel's appearance here is pointless. The scene between Sora and Axel here is taken from a scene in my upcoming fic entitled '_Disco Leez'_ which is an AkuRoku romance. As you can see, Roxas is a _freak_. Who on earth names their fish after the five characters of _Tokyo Mew Mew_? And _why _parrot fish? Because they rule! Watch out for this in future.

7) The final scene between Cloud and Sora in the World Music section was the hardest to write. I had to edit it a couple of times to get it right and I don't want to read it again.

I've realised that this story is about to come to an end! If all goes according to plan, there will be **two** more chapters left of this story – and I have a hunch that the next chappie is another super-long one. So last chance for you _un-reviewed readers_ to send me REVIEWS! Get ready, people.

Next up: Dishwashing and a Discman! 'Business' meetings and flabbergasted stares! A rainy evening with warm cheeks as the physical gap between Cloud and Sora starts to close! It's time to play!

**Feedback and reviews are nice, by the way**.


	5. Interlude

Dedicated to these beloved reviewers:

**Ptoras, Sakura Moon, Sorakun4ever, Steel Heart, hittocerebattosai, Cloudlessly **(I hope this chapter makes it up for you)**, Crazy bout Remmy, Metal Chocobo, Nanneh, atomic-smile, Anjo, XxTypoMasterxX, herzeleidx, katgirlofthenight, Darkspider, weirdette **(U kno wat? I actually lupa si Sora punya cookies last chappie!)**, Black-Dranzer-1119, DahlingKu suika-chan, The O.C. Addict **and** Chibi-chibi-kun.**

_Sashiburi da na, _it's been a while since last update and it's most likely that you lovely readers have forgotten what this story's about. Well, I apologise for the long, long delay. Unfortunately, time has made my passion for Cloud/Sora fade so getting back to writing this story has been pretty hard for me. In the end though, I pushed myself to finish. After all, I've only two chapters left (now a finale coming up). So here it is and read it _carefully_ please. I wrote this chapter and the previous ones with deliberate precision. I hope you enjoy reading it and if you have the time, please drop a **review**, telling me what you think.

**Disclaimer: **_This is Halloween _from The Nightmare before Christmas belongs to Touchstone Pictures, _Now or Never _to CHEMISTRY and Vincent Valentine to Squaresoft.

**

* * *

Chow Chow

* * *

  
**

_**(Interlude) **_

Sora's foot was unconsciously tapping to the rhythm of Track 7 playing in his ear. His hand crawled into a packet of strawberry Pocky sticks to extract the last of its contents. The stick was then hastily shoved into his mouth and he kept it there, his taste buds taking their time to enjoy the taste of sweet goodness.

"Hey."

Just over the musical tune of tambourines and the vocalist's nasal voice, he could just make out someone calling him. In a few seconds, a hand appeared out of nowhere to pull the headphones off his head.

"Don't pretend that you're unconscious of your surroundings, Sora."

Sora looked up at Riku, who was gazing down at him with raised eyebrows. They were in the kitchen of their apartment room, having just finished their dinner. A pair of chopsticks (Sora's) and a fork and spoon (Riku's) had been carelessly tossed onto the pile of dirty plates in the middle of the table. An empty rice bowl sat next to it, followed by another dish stained with black pepper sauce to indicate the last remains of their meal. Two tall glasses, also stacked, joined the rest of this clutter.

At Sora's end of the table, there was a bright yellow Discman covered in photo stickers with its wires looping across the table, connected to the headphones resting around the brunet's neck. A large textbook was placed just next to the Discman and it was this item that the brunet had been occupied with in all those minutes.

Riku frowned at seeing this before he reached over and picked up the textbook with an air of expectancy. Just as he had guessed, there was a Japanese manga comic underneath, its pages open and shamefully exposed for all to see.

The silver-haired youth turned and gave his roommate a questioning look.

Sora, having finished eating his Pocky stick, grinned sheepishly back at him, "I… couldn't help myself."

Riku sighed and placed Sora's textbook back on the table. "Whatever. Let's go and clean up, okay? You send the pla– hey, are you even _listening_?" He sent a glare at the brunet who was at the moment reading his illustrated article instead of paying any attention to his instructions.

"Uh? Yeah, yeah, I know," Sora murmured distractedly, his blue eyes travelling across the page of the manga, oblivious to the fact that his reply had caused Riku to fume at his dismissive demeanour. "Just give me a sec – I'm almost done–"

But he didn't get the chance to finish his words because Riku had already reached over and snatched the manga away from his sight.

Sora sent the other an annoyed look. "Riku!"

The silver-haired youth snapped the book shut and waved it from side to side in emphasis. The front cover of _Dragonball Z _glossed under the golden glow of the kitchen lights.

"I should really tell Tidus off for lending you this," he said with an exasperated sigh.

Sora extended an open hand and gave his roommate a grand pout. "Give it _back_, Ri! I mean it! Do you _know _how hard it is to find DBZ manga these days? I was lucky enough to get this from Tidus before Wakka could lay his hands on it! Come on, I'm serious! Ri–! Ehhh! **Ri-**_**kuuu**_!"

Riku had just deposited the manga on top of the refrigerator without another word. He shot the brunet a look that challenged the boy's pout and then proceeded to cross his arms in final decision.

"Okay then, _you _go and wash the dishes. I'll clean up the table. You can have your manga back after we finish clearing up… and dammit, Sora. Stop giving me that stupid look of yours."

With a surrendered sigh because his efforts were fruitless, the brunet stood up from his chair, unintentionally wiping off the invisible debris that clung onto his pants. Passing Riku and taking care to purposely jostle their shoulders in the process, he went over to the sink, folded up his sleeves and picked up one of the dirty dishes.

"Hey…" came Riku's voice from behind him and Sora looked over his shoulder to see his companion holding up the CD he had taken out of the Discman with two fingers, "…What were you listening to anyway?"

Sora's lips stretched into a sly smile. If there was something about Riku that Sora knew best (other than his obsessive nature of getting good grades and falling into depression whenever those grades dropped), it was the silver-haired youth's odd interest for his music CDs. Sora's own collection was filled with a range of different music genres in a variety of languages. Of course, he had obtained most of them from Tidus, whose compilation surpassed Sora's in size and selection… but that really wasn't the point anyway.

Turning on the tap and rinsing the plate in his hands, he replied to the other in a matter-of-factly tone, "A Korean band called DeliSpice. Just got the CD yesterday. It's not bad really. You can listen to it later if you want."

"Yeah, okay," said Riku, his expression looking a bit brighter after the humble offer and Sora almost smiled at the response because he knew how stressful Riku's life really was and felt glad that he was doing something to lighten the other up a little. After placing the disc back into the bright yellow device, Riku picked up the empty rice bowl and carried it over to the sink. "By the way, weren't you with Kairi yesterday?"

Sora turned off the tap, picked up a sponge and began rubbing the plate with some dishwashing liquid.

"Yep. Guess what she gave me then? A turtle suit that her grandma had sewn up for our campaign. I wasn't a bit surprised that it was finished so soon. I brought it to the meeting just this morning. The problem was that Kairi didn't tell me where it was held so I assumed it had to be in the Leisure centre, you remember, like last week and all. So I rushed there about an hour early because Kairi already warned me about coming late and ended up waiting for no one in particular for nearly two hours. It was only when this group of girls came in and started throwing their stuff at me and shouting about weirdoes wanting to join their private yoga class that I apologised and went all the way back into the office and found Zexion, who _then _told me that our meeting was actually held in the _auditorium_ all along–"

As the brunet continued his chattering, the plate in his hand became engulfed in a thick coat of bubbles and white foam. However, this did nothing to attract Sora's attention away from telling his tale to Riku, who had already finished clearing up the table and was now wiping it spotless with a spray and a cloth.

"–Of course, Kairi was mad at me because I came late and told me off for not checking my phone for any new messages because she said she _definitely _sent me a text about it. But anyway, I never could have guessed it or anything but it turned out…" continued Sora, completely oblivious of the fact that both plate and his wrists were smothered with bubbles, "…that I _wasn't _going to be the one wearing that turtle suit after all!"

This was how Sora's and Riku's daily conversations went. It was basic fact that both boys possessed different schedules and because of this, they rarely came across one other on college grounds. It was only back in their shared apartment that they would then reunite after their busy days. Although Riku only met Sora's friends once or twice in the period of several months since arriving at the college, he knew them almost as well as the brunet. And this was because Sora always talked to him about his life, whether he intended to or not. Riku couldn't blame the brunet for carelessly sharing his social life with him. Besides, it sounded far more interesting than his long, tedious lectures.

"Really?" Riku replied, straightening up after finishing his cleaning and casting his eyes onto Sora, who still hadn't had much of his work done as there was a clutter of dirty plates and dishes still occupying the sink, waiting to be noticed.

"Yeah, _really_! I was so surprised myself!" exclaimed the brunet with a toothy grin. "Because I got there _so _late, I thought that Kairi was going to make the announcement and pick me as the mascot for the campaign because... well, you know Kairi, right? She can think up all sorts of punishments if you don't do what she says and all so–"

Seeing that Sora's animated story-telling was doing nothing to complete his work, Riku sighed wearily at this and walked over to the brunet, swiftly taking the foam-smothered plate out of the other's hands and rinsing it under the tap. Sora, taking no note that Riku was resuming the task he had failed to complete, washed the bubbles off his wrists and automatically moved aside in order to pick up a new dish cloth patterned with teddy bears and picnic baskets and begin drying one of the plates. And even throughout all this, he still carried on with his speaking, "–after she told me off and all, she got up and said that the decision about who was going to wear the suit on the big day has been made."

"So who is it then?"

The brunet snickered as he paused in his drying. "Demyx! Would you _believe _it? You _do _know Dem, right? He's that guitar-loving, whiny guy who acts like a teenager. You know, the one I told you about who joined our campaign because of Zexion and he's also in the same music school as Roxas is? Yeah, it was Kairi herself who picked him to be our mascot!"

"Kairi?" Riku echoed, washing off his third plate and stacking it on the drying rack next to the sink before picking up another. When he saw Sora nod enthusiastically in response, he then carelessly motioned the brunet to continue his drying. "That doesn't seem fair," he then continued. "Why don't you vote instead?"

Sora shrugged as he rubbed continuously on a spot on the plate he held in his hand: "Kairi said that it was punishment because Demyx dropped one of the turtles she brought to the meeting a week ago in our drinking jug. You couldn't imagine how furious Zexion was when he found this out. He's very protective over Demyx, Zexion is. Dem was close to tears when he heard the announcement so he whined to Zex about it. And then in just two seconds flat, Zexion burst into the auditorium and started shouting at Kairi and they ended up arguing on either sides of the hall. It was like a match on who could shout better over the other and me and everyone else became the spectators."

"Hm. Too bad_ I_ wasn't there," Riku said, grinning.

"Yeah, and you could have been the guy who parades around our seats, selling hot dogs and peanuts, you know."

"You _wish_."

"Well you can get hungry when you watch those two bicker all the time! It's _true!_" Sora pointed out as he stopped his drying in order to brandish the cloth he held into the air for emphasis. "And this man came in and told us off afterwards, said that we were making too much noise and that we should go back to the zoo or something like that… Anyway, so Kairi soon calmed down and then continued the meeting as if nothing had happened but Zexion stayed behind to watch, much to Kairi's disgust and all–"

Riku rinsed his hands for a last time, having finished his washing-up in such an impossibly short time. Silently, he took the dish cloth from the still speaking Sora – only because the brunet was now absent-mindedly fingering a small hole that was torn in the middle of the cloth – and resumed the workload.

"–But then, needless to say…" continued Sora, unaware that he had failed again in completing his assigned tasks and was now much too engrossed in delivering his story to his roommate. "…In the end, Kairi forced Demyx into the suit anyway and ignored whatever Zexion said to her. And what do you know? It turned out to be a perfect fit! And I'm not trying to be evil or anything but I think that Demyx would make a better-looking turtle than I would have ever been."

"Hm. That so?"

"Yeah," said Sora, grinning at the memory. "And then what happened next was really–"

A haunting music beat suddenly interrupted them, very quiet at first but shortly, its volume grew louder and louder after each passing second. Soon after came the audible words:

"–_with us and you will see…in our town of Halloween!"_

Two pairs of eyes shifted and became fixed onto a silver mobile phone, one that was identical to Sora's but with the absence of photo stickers and with the addition of key chains, that vibrated on the kitchen counter just behind them.

"–_This is Halloween! This is Halloween! Pumpkins scream in the dead of night!"_

Riku tore his gaze away from the phone and settled onto his companion, "You changed my ring-tone again?"

Sora chuckled sheepishly, "Well, you never complain about it. Do you want me to put on something else? How about one of the songs from that CHEMISTRY CD you borrowed from Kairi a few nights ago? What was that song called … _Now or Never …_or something?"

Riku sighed and ignored the other's babbling, stopping his dish drying to reach over and snatch the silver phone from the counter. The key chains – an intricate-shaped heart and a silver crown –tinkled as they shook and with one click of a button, Riku brought the phone up to his ear, "Hello?"

Just as Sora was about to slink away and collect his textbook (and perhaps stand on tip-toe to reach his manga on top of the fridge as well), his eye caught the shifting expression on Riku's face. It changed from enquiring puzzlement to flushed fury and irritation as the latter listened to the voice on the other end of the line.

Then, without further ado, the silver-haired youth wrenched the phone away from his ear and held it out to Sora.

Sora stared, confused. "Who is it?"

Riku pulled a face and began waving the phone at Sora's direction, motioning for him to take it.

The brunet took the call, "Hello? Sora here."

"Hey," said the voice on the other end.

Sora sighed heavily, having recognised the voice on the other line. Afterwards, his eyebrows then furrowed just a tad bit and casting a glance at Riku, who was drying another plate rather furiously for his perspective, he continued speaking, "Oh, it's only you. Don't tell me you called Riku's phone on _purpose_?"

"Maybe," groused the other before the voice hardened into a low, deadpanned tone, "I feel like ticking him off for a bit. It's been a while."

Sora groaned, "Le–"

"What's he doing anyway?" came the interruption from the other line before the voice spoke again in a purposely loud volume that caused Sora to pull the device slightly away from his ear. "Don't tell me he's _cleaning _again? He should get a job as a part-time _maid _and wear the uniform while he's at it. Who knows? He might look quite nice in it!"

Sora shot a glance at Riku, who was still rubbing (well, _strangling _seemed like a better word for it) the plate with his dish cloth before trying vaguely to imagine him in a lacy French Maid's outfit, complete with feather duster. Almost instantly, he fought back a blush that was creeping up his cheeks when the image flashed in his mind.

"He's just–" Sora started but again his words were cut off.

"I was right, wasn't I? He _is _cleaning right now. It's either that or he's locked up in his room with his head buried in his textbooks or slopping all over the place because his grades have dropped again. It's not so hard to guess what that prissy little _prima-donna_ is up to these days–"

_CRASH! _

Sora whipped his head around and found that the plate that Riku had been strangling– er, _drying_ a second ago had fallen from the latter's grasp and shattered onto the floor in little pieces. The silver-haired youth looked furious at the insults that were directed at him and crouched down to pick up the broken pieces of porcelain, muttering heatedly under his breath with words far too incoherent for Sora to make sense of.

"Look, look," Sora said, fighting to gain authority over the conversation. "Why don't you leave Riku _alone_ for once and call me directly–"

"Mm, no thanks," snorted the person on the other line. "Half of the time you don't even answer, you know that?"

"That's not–" the flustered brunet objected with a small pout on his lips but once again, his words were disrupted.

"Look, I need you to do a little favour for me. Can you drop by before seven? You've got spare keys to my house so you'll be able to let yourself in. I've got to be somewhere by then and my suits need to be sent to the dry cleaners tonight…"

"What?! Wait a second!" Sora protested with a frown that replaced his pout as he watched Riku dump the shattered pieces into the dustbin before he picked up a new plate from the drying rack. "That's not fair–"

"…Some idiot at the office spilt gravy all over my suit," continued the caller as if the other hadn't spoken at all. "You know Dobi's, right? Just round– hmm, _course_ you do. Remember, alright? Before seven. I'll be waiting… oh, and tell Little Miss Silver Locks that _princesses_ need their bedtimes too, you know. Don't study too late or he'll ruin that pretty face of his!"

Then the line went dead.

Behind him, Riku swore, having heard the insult being spoken so loudly out of the phone's speaker, and dropped his second plate, letting it shatter onto the floor with another small crash.

* * *

Cloud adjusted his tie for what seemed like the umpteenth time and grimaced when his finger became tangled in one of the knots. As he struggled to untangle his trapped finger, he heard Leon sigh beside him.

"I've already told you to leave that tie of yours alone," said the other man, who was dressed up in a light stripy business shirt with his own tie resting neatly over it in a rather attractive way.

Cloud, wearing attire that was similar to his companion's own, kept silent and continued his fumbling all before Leon reached over and began to loosen his tie for him. A tiny hint of a frown lingered somewhere within the blonde's features as the brunet expertly worked on disentangling his finger from the knot. Simultaneously, Cloud ignored the way the other's fingers were touching his own and pretended to study the creases that tainted his companion's shirt.

Afterwards, the brown-haired man began to readjust the silk article around the flustered blonde's neck, unaware that the latter was cringing slightly at his touch. The scene vaguely reminded Cloud of an occasion when his mother was fixing his tie up for him on the day of his first job interview.

"There," Leon stepped back to regard his work. "Now don't _touch _it anymore. And don't look so nervous… it's only a meeting. Right, I'm ringing the doorbell now."

Cloud pursed his lips.

_Just like Mother, this one._

He let out a sigh to relieve his unease but couldn't help feeling that something about this so-called meeting was wrong. The two men were standing outside Yuffie's house – a rather large white house it was – that had been decorated with pots of flowering plants. The French windows were emitting warm, golden glows and behind those white, willowy curtains, Cloud was able to distinguish the shadowy silhouettes of bodies moving about.

Leon reached over and pressed the small button by the door and the sound of a woman screeching could be heard from inside the house. Both men blinked and tried to take in the fact that the aforementioned scream was actually the _doorbell _ringing.

The white doors of the house opened and a shaft of golden light washed over the two individuals outside. A man had answered their call – tall, with long dark hair that cascaded down his blood red garments like a black waterfall. His equally red eyes shone out of his white, expressionless face as he regarded them both on the porch. Even after all these years, Cloud couldn't help but shudder at the man's vampire-like appearance.

"Vincent," Leon greeted the other with a nod. "Looking the same as always."

The man called Vincent merely nodded back infinitesimally and answered in a way almost similar to Cloud's quiet, murmuring manner, "And _you_ too."

They entered the warm-lit house, taking in the wonderful smells of prepared food, before making their way down a hallway lined with portraits of Yuffie's ancestors. When they passed through a large room full of trophies, old relics and ancient weaponry, Cloud managed to notice a pair of samurai swords resting on the wall above a glass display case that presented yellowing pieces of parchment scrawled with Japanese characters. Another display case next to this exhibited a collection of_ Naruto _merchandise – from action figures to limited edition Instant Ramen cups.

After telling himself how filthy rich Yuffie's family must be to own a house that resembled much more like a museum than a home, Cloud followed Vincent and Leon through a set of double doors. It was then when the blonde suddenly felt his heart begin to pound with growing apprehension as the three men stepped into the room.

Then his eyes widened with horror at the sight.

There were around twelve or more people in the room, chattering and laughing and gossiping to each other as they mingled about in pairs and in small groups. He could spot Reno at the far corner boasting loudly to a band of three other people while slapping the back of another tall, suited man whose dark sunglasses (Cloud found it odd for this individual to wear shades at night) hid his eyes. A little distance away stood the two girls from the Le Blanc café, Rikku and Paine, who were both in deep conversation with Yuna, whom Cloud recognised as one of the employees from his workplace. Rikku was wearing that ridiculous puffy skirt again and was showing it to Yuna despite a disgusted Paine who scowled with arms crossed over her chest. Moving his eyes away again, he caught sight of Yuffie arguing hotly with one of the office's computer technicians, Cid, as she prodded a bowl of stew accusingly at his chest.

This was definitely _not _a business meeting that Yuffie had invited him to.

This was a** party**.

And Cloud – _hated _parties.

After that one look that perceived all there is to know and confirm that he had been foolishly tricked into coming, Cloud spun around and marched back out of the room, mentally cursing both Leon and Yuffie for this outrageous scam and _especially_ Leon for taking advantage of his sleepy state and persuading him to come the afternoon before.

"Cloud! Wait!"

It was Leon. The blonde wholly ignored him and continued his journey towards the front door, reminding himself that from this point on, he was _never_ going to talk to Leon – or anyone in the office – ever again.

"Please wait!"

A hand caught onto his arm and pulled him back. Just as Cloud was about to jerk his elbow away from the touch, he was then confronted by a pair of soft, green eyes and curling brown hair that was beautifully adorned by a pink, silk ribbon.

"Aerith?" Cloud blinked, surprised in seeing her presence here of all places. He thought she was coming home late from her evening tuition classes as she normally did on weeknights like this. When did she have the time to rush home, pick out a dress and show up at Yuffie's place without telling _him _about it?

"I know," the brunette replied with a sigh as she flicked away one of the brown strands with a finger. "I didn't expect you to come too. I know you don't like occasions like this so I didn't bother telling you about it. I heard the whole story from Leon…" her words trailed off just as Cloud turned his gaze away from hers to settle onto the front door, which was amazingly standing several more metres before him. If he pulled away from Aerith now, he'd still be able to leave–

"But you're _here_ now," Aerith pointed out as she tugged onto his arm. "So please stay for a while. I don't want you walking home alone. It's going to rain soon by the looks of things…"

Cloud hesitated, his gaze still fixed determinedly on the door.

"Cloud… Cloud, please…?"

Cloud suddenly bristled at the words as if reacting to the way they had been spoken. To him, they just seemed so familiar somehow…

"_**So is it okay? I really won't be any trouble, I promise, promise, promise! Please?"**_

His heart suddenly sped up at the memory of syrup-covered waffles, multicoloured sticky notes and that voice … the voice that had asked him permission to sit at his table on that very late morning.

"Please?_" _

Finally snapping out of his reverie, he then gave a great sigh which expelled all his uncertainties, his irritation and the tension that had been placed upon his shoulders. Aerith, sensing the blonde's defeat, smiled gratefully and lead him back into the large dining room where the party awaited him.

* * *

_Click._

"Yeah? I'm kind of busy at the moment."

Even when he could hear the sounds of other people chattering on the other end of the line, he didn't care. The fact that his whole face was still flushed red was more important at the moment.

"You!" Sora panted down his mobile phone as he sprinted down the street. He had just left the Dry Cleaners not a few seconds ago, feeling as if he had been infected with a fatal disease and was about to fall dead at any moment.

"Hm? What's the matter, Sora?"

"Damn _you_, Leon! Damn you and your _laundry_! Why didn't you tell me about that woman at the Dry Cleaners?"

"Huh, must've slipped my mind."

"Don't give me that! You asked me to take your washing not because I'm your _brother – _but because you don't want to get _groped _by that–that woman!"

There was a sigh at the other end before the speaker replied in an apologetic tone, "Hey, I didn't know she'd be on duty tonigh– what? Hang on, hang on. You're going now…?" Leon's voice was fainter now and Sora knew that the other had pulled the phone away and was talking to someone else. Sora patiently waited for the other to finish: "You'll be okay?… Yeah, yeah – take Aerith's umbrella… I'll see you at the office… Sorry… about all this…"

There was a pause before Leon came back on, "Sorry about that. Anyway, I _really _am too busy to go down there myself."

"Well, she… she…" Sora wanted to argue about this but Leon's reasons seemed far too convincing to deny. He couldn't recall a day in their childhood when Leon purposely landed him in bad situations like this. Because of this, Sora began to feel a little guilty for yelling down the phone at him for no reason.

"What did she do to you then?" asked Leon in a curious tone of wonder at what strange things the counter-woman at the Dry Cleaners would do to his younger sibling.

Sora's face reddened again. "Sh-she … she kinda grabbed and … uh, said … I … I had _curves_."

He heard Leon snort in laughter on the other line.

"Don't worry about it. Think about what she does to _me_ everytime I go down there with my laundry."

"Yeah… she kind of mentioned you."

"Yeah?"

"She said I reminded her of one of her favourite customers."

"_Really_? I'm classified as a _favourite _now? Don't I feel honoured."

Sora finally slowed down in his tracks, stopping near a kerb. It was then when he felt a cold raindrop land on the tip of his nose. He nearly jumped at the sudden contact.

"It's starting to rain here," Sora informed the other as he looked up at the dark cloudy sky. "I'd better get back. Listen, I have to go."

"Okay then, take care. Come over anytime. It's been a while since we last saw each other, you know?"

"Yeah… bye, Leon."

"See you, Sora."

As Sora slipped the phone into his pocket, the skies wholly broke down, letting the rain pelt onto his form. Sora cursed, tugged the hood of his top over his brown hair and ran towards the bus stop just down the road.

* * *

The only thing that floated in Cloud's mind at the moment as he sat there at the long table were the words: _This is __**hell**_.

Sure enough, it did perhaps resemble 'hell'. Everyone was seated down the long table, their plates full of hot food and their glasses filled with juice yet on and _on_ they chattered, ranted, hooted, babbled, roared with laughter. The cacophonous noise was enough to deafen your hearing permanently yet Cloud wondered why on earth everyone seemed to not notice the raucous they were making. Why hadn't the neighbours complained yet? Whatever happened to keeping the noise level down in peaceful neighbourhoods like this? What the hell was he doing here in the first place?!

And why was Vincent the only person who seemed to be happy having his seconds?

Cloud shot a baffled glance at the silent man who sat just opposite him. Sure enough, Vincent was manoeuvring a spoonful of curry rice into his mouth, his red eyes half-closed with quiet enjoyment as he slowly chewed on his food. He seemed unnaturally relaxed for someone who was sitting smack in the middle of a zoo full of jarring _animals_. Cloud wondered what the man had been smoking to be in such an unperturbed mood like this.

Beside him, Leon had just finished exchanging words with Yuna and was at the moment fishing out his mobile phone from his pocket. Cloud heard Leon answer the phone almost lazily, "Yeah? I'm kind of busy at the moment."

Cloud looked down at his plate – a mixture of meat and rice and a helping of vegetables and tofu cubes. The food looked appetizing but Cloud had no appetite with all this noise around him. It was not as if anyone would notice that he was not eating. In fact, almost everyone at the table hadn't touched their plates. Apart from Vincent.

Leon was just saying, "Hm? What's the matter, So–" when Reno let out a hoot of laughter and slapped his hand onto the long table, sending shock waves down to the other end. Cloud felt his eye beginning to twitch terribly. He did not like his situation at all. He wanted to go.

His eyes landed onto the dark-haired man sitting opposite him and they widened with absolute astonishment. Vincent had already finished his second helping of curry rice and was just in the process of spooning a third onto his plate.

_That's it. I'm leaving._

Cloud stood up from his seat, his lips set in a firm line. Strangely, no one seemed to notice his abrupt leave.

"…Hang on. You're going now…?" Cloud felt Leon's attention on him. The brown-haired man still held the mobile phone in his other hand and was looking up at Cloud with concerned grey eyes. On the opposite side of the table, Aerith roused from her discussion with the woman sitting beside her and turned her gaze on him. Her eyes were large and hopeful. Cloud looked away and nodded a response to Leon.

"Oh, Cloud," he thought he heard Aerith's voice from behind him but he chose to ignore her and continued gathering up his jacket from the back of his chair. He was about to head out of the room when he heard Leon's voice over the noise again: "You'll be okay?"

Without looking back, Cloud nodded again.

"Cloud, please take my umbrella," Aerith called to him. "It might rain on the way."

"Yeah, yeah – take Aerith's umbrella…" Leon echoed the woman's words, his mobile phone still dangling by the base of his ear. "I'll see you at the office…"

Cloud took a step forward, recalling the vow that he had made when he first discovered that Leon had tricked him into coming to the so-called 'business meeting' and planned to faithfully accomplish that vow. But on the last minute, he felt Leon's strong fingers encircle his bare wrist in a gentle grip and Cloud, surprised at the tenderness of Leon's touch, couldn't help but look back at the man.

"Sorry… about all this…"

Something about that apology triggered a small crack to surface on Cloud's retained mask of impassivity. For once, he knew that Leon could see his genuine, explicit surprise. It wasn't his fault really. Leon had never apologised to him so sincerely before. So yes it was naturally unexpected.

From the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Aerith's lips curl up into a satisfied smile. At this, he snapped out of his trance and settled his features back to its original blank state. He nodded to Leon again and finally set off.

Behind him, he heard Leon returning back to his call, his voice lapsing to a nonchalant tone as if the latter hadn't apologised to him earlier on: "Sorry about that. Anyway, I _really _am too busy to go down there myself…"

* * *

Sora glanced at his watch for the umpteenth time before looking up and down the rain-slicked street for any sign of a red bus in the distance. All he could see stretched out before him was a row of red and white lights, their colours blurred by the sleet of light rain. This long line of wet cars waited for each other impatiently as they crawled down the street like tentative snails.

He had been shivering under the bus shelter for nearly seven minutes now and he doubted that his bus was going to get here so soon. Two minutes passed and the queue hadn't so much moved. Another five minutes later, Sora had had enough of waiting because the icy wind was biting his cheeks, his nose was frozen and he couldn't feel his fingers anymore. He stood up from the narrow bench under that bus shelter and set his sight on the road ahead. The route back to the familiar area of Radiant Garden Park should be just up ahead. All he had to do was walk under the rain to get there. It was much better than staying put and _freezing_ to death out here.

Sora pulled the hood of his top over his brown locks and prayed that it was enough to shelter him from the drizzle. Hoisting his bag over one shoulder, he took a deep breath – _here goes nothing _– and ducked out of the bus shelter and into the rainy street.

The thin, sharp raindrops assaulted his form at once and Sora hunched up his shoulders in an attempt to secure the last of the warmth he had left. He buried his hands deeply into his pockets and tried to think of his nice warm bed, Riku's scowls for Sora interrupting his work and maybe some nice hot chocolate…

He stopped at a kerb at the end of the street where a set of traffic lights stood. Distracted in his thoughts, his eyes fixed themselves onto the glowing red colour of the traffic light, also blurred by the wet and grey surroundings, and almost absent-mindedly, he was humming out a tune all too familiar. Of course, he didn't know the lyrics. He didn't know how to sing or speak Korean but the tune and the music and everything about it was _magical_. He still couldn't place his finger on the song's significance to him. All that he could relate with it was that it was _weird_ and strangely addicting and it made him think about waffles and earpieces and strawberries and deep, deep blue eyes…

_Cloud…_

Something was wrong. The rain seemed to have stopped yet he could still see the droplets contrasting against the street's dark colours. Sora blinked a moment and lifted his head up to look at the sky – but found himself staring at the inside of a small pink tent.

_This is–_

He realised it was not a tent but an _umbrella_.

Sora whipped around and knocked into the person who was holding the pink umbrella over his head. The abrupt collision startled them both – the umbrella dropped to the pavement and at the same time, Sora's hood fell back from his head, exposing the brown spikes of his hair to the watery surroundings. The two individuals blinked at each other through the curtain of falling raindrops, their hair becoming soaked before their eyes lit up with mutual familiarity.

"Hi," Sora finally said, his mouth strangely dry.

_Way to go, Sora. The first thing that comes out of your mouth is an awkward '_Hi_'. Yeah, right. _

"I… uh, I was just thinking about you–" he then blurted out but stopped when he realised what he had just said. And judging from Cloud's slightly amused expression, it was obvious that he had taken note of the words too. Instantly, Sora cringed and slapped a hand onto his flushed cheek.

"I-I mean…" the brunet fumbled for a better response as he tried his best not to look at Cloud and instead settled his gaze on the pink umbrella lying on its side on the wet pavement. "I was thinking about how you liked strawberries and how _I _liked strawberries and um… oh gosh, I'm really sorry about crashing into you because I didn't see you there and I'd been so surprised when I noticed the umbrella that I sorta stepped back and … well, you know what happened."

A horrible silence descended upon them and they continued to stand there in the rain, unmoving. Cars swept past, oblivious of their situation. The traffic light changed from a blurry red to green.

By now, Sora was close to fidgeting visibly. His gaze was still fixed on the umbrella, his front teeth digging into his lower lip and his face probably red enough to resemble the brightness of a traffic light.

At the corner of his eye, Cloud was shaking.

_Huh?_

Sora glanced up sharply to look at Cloud.

Who was shaking with laughter.

The blonde man was looking elsewhere but at him, the knuckles of his fingers pressed onto his smiling lips and his shoulders shaking slightly. The sight was so _unnatural_ that Sora couldn't help but gawk at him.

Seriously, Cloud was _laughing_.

All their meetings together had given Sora an outline look at what Cloud's personality was like. He could guess that Cloud wasn't much of a person who could laugh at a random joke. To be honest, the blonde was perhaps the only person – apart from Riku, of course – who maintained an almost serious façade. Now here was Cloud _laughing _at some sort of joke that Sora had failed to see and it was … it was… Sora didn't know what to make of it really. It was weird though, he knew that. Weird… but nice.

"I'm sorry," Cloud finally gasped out, his blue eyes shifting back on him. "It's just that – this would sound quite stupid – I was also thinking about you. Imagine my surprise when you showed up here." Cloud's eyes were sparkling after his silent little laughing fit and he bent down to pick up his umbrella. "Enough with the apologies. _I _should be the one to apologise. I shouldn't have crept up on you like that."

Sora was so stunned at this that when he opened his mouth, he couldn't get a word out. Instead, he swallowed and feeling another blush climb up his cheeks, scratched the back of his head sheepishly. He was beginning to see the amusing side of the situation. Of course it was funny, how they seemed to bump into each other like this, almost coincidental, almost as if they were pushed together by fate…

_If Leon heard about this, he'd probably laugh too._

"Are you heading home?" Sora began, intending to keep their conversation going. He found that he couldn't stop staring at Cloud at this point. There were still traces of laughter in the blonde's face and his eyes… the blueness in them was still sparkling.

"Yes, I am," Cloud said and for a second, he looked uncertain at something and then he took a step forward, as if he was compelling himself to act, and closed the distance between them. Sora's heart leapt and he felt the other's warmth wash over him as the blonde held up the umbrella above their heads.

"Th-Thanks," Sora said as he looked up at Cloud with gratitude and realised how close they stood together on that kerb. Sora then spotted something else about Cloud. The square bandage on his temple was gone and the bruise was no longer there.

Without needing to say anything else, both Cloud and Sora stepped off the curb and crossed the street, walking side by side. Their close proximity caused their shoulders to brush lightly against each other's. Despite knowing this, they made no effort to move away.

"The CD," Cloud murmured with curiosity in his voice, breaking their silence. Surprised that Cloud was the first to speak, Sora glanced at the blonde and saw a very faint shade of pink on Cloud's cheek. "Well, how was it?"

Sora knew exactly what Cloud was referring to.

"It's not as gloomy as _Chow Chow_," he answered. "Quite nice to listen to and Riku seems to like it as well… but then…"

"But?"

"Well…" Sora began and paused because he couldn't find the words. At the time when he sat down and listened to the songs of that album, he found that it didn't seem to satisfy him. Something – whatever it was – still remained unanswered.

Cloud was watching him all this time and whether he was reading his expression or perhaps waiting for his answer, Sora wasn't sure. But the blonde spoke in his usual quiet voice: "It's… it's not it, right? Not what you're looking for? You're still…" he stopped when he saw Sora's surprised expression and he became bewildered at his own accurateness.

Feeling suddenly embarrassed, they both looked away, lapsing into silence as they kept walking down the rain-slicked street. The downpour was beginning to intensify. Sora, realising that his sleeve was getting wet, had no choice but to move deeper under the umbrella, shift closer to Cloud and his elbow pressed against the blonde's side and then jerked away from the contact. Sora realised he was blushing much more wildly than he first thought.

A few moments later, the brunet suddenly spoke.

"There is … it's like something's missing," he started to explain. "Like… like a puzzle… no, a… a question more like. When I'm just alone and I'm thinking about everything that's happened to me that day, there's this… this… some sort of–"

"Feeling? Some nagging feeling?" Cloud finished for him but voice was strange, sounding as if he was surprised at his own words. "And you don't know… what it is… don't know what it wants with you."

"_Yes_," Sora stared because he was taken aback at Cloud's words, at the discovery that they shared the same views of _Chow Chow_. "Like it's asking you something… and-and _telling_ you that… that…"

_What? Telling you what?_

_I… I don't know._

He suddenly stopped in mid-step and Cloud brushed past him, realised what had happened then and stopped as well, turning to see the boy still staring at him but not really seeing him at all. He was lost in his own thoughts.

A few seconds later, Sora snapped out of his trance.

"Can we… go somewhere?" the boy said and Cloud, seeing that whatever thoughts in the boy's mind was distracting him from the fact that he was getting wet in the rain, walked over to him to hold the umbrella above their heads again. The blonde's expression was expectant, ready to hear more.

Their faces were only several inches away.

"I – I think…" Sora started, uncertain of telling him his planned destination. He found it harder to breathe with the warmth surrounding them, with Cloud's warmth pressing in on him.

"Okay," Cloud cut in before the other could say anything else. "Let's go."

_**

* * *

End (Interlude)

* * *

**_

Footnotes:

**1.**) Riku and Sora's scene is another taster of their close relationship and of course, a further insight into Riku's character. Because of Sora's talkative nature, Riku knows quite a bit about Sora's circle of friends, despite not being part of it. Also, if you have been reading carefully, you'd have noticed that Riku's mobile phone is identical to Sora's "but with the absence of photo stickers and with the addition of key chains". This glimpse of the phone is there for a reason because it symbolises the two boys' relationship. In another story of the _Romansa _series in which this story is part of (that I'm unsure whether to write or not), their phones are the entities which initiate their relationship in the first place. Sora has a habit of changing Riku's ring-tone and again this tendency will appear in _another_ story of the series. So, _Chow Chow_ has allusions to other works of the _Romansa _series_._

Also, now that we know that the mysterious caller is Leon, you'd have also noticed that both Riku and Leon hold a mutual dislike for each other.

**2.**) Leon and Cloud. Reading over this story again, I'd realised my mistake. I have ruined Leon's character (arrggghh!!!) as he seems more Zack-like than I thought. I realised that Leon shouldn't be all flirty and teasing when with Cloud but I guess it's too late to change that. Again, if you've been following the chapters, you'd have noticed that there seems to be a potential _something_ going on between Cloud and Leon (as is Riku and Sora in Chapter 2). It's kind of obvious from the descriptions I've put in: "Cloud ignored the way the other's fingers were touching his own" and of course, "But on the last minute, he felt Leon's strong fingers encircle his bare wrist in a gentle grip and Cloud, surprised at the tenderness of Leon's touch, couldn't help but look back at the man."

Also, we now know that Leon is Sora's brother so there's a clash of feelings here, don't you think? Why is this? Again, there is a reason: both Sora and Cloud lead very different lives and the people in their separate lives actually have a connection to each other (e.g. Leon is both Sora's brother and Cloud's colleague) but in _Chow Chow_, notice that their lives do not interfere (and will not interfere at all. I'm not planning for Leon to find out that his brother is after Cloud as well). Here, both Cloud and Sora are in their own world.

I'm sorry for the long footnotes. I would like to point out bits of this story that I'd like the reader to know just to show how much I've put in during the making of this story (and its companion stories of the _Romansa _series).

A huge **thank you** to all reviewers of this story, for all chapters. You've been very supportive with me. I love you all. Until next time.


End file.
